According to senior producer Jeff Gardiner, two minor details for butterflies and ants were removed before the game's release, because they were causing lag. Butterflies were intended to have a mechanic where if they detected flowers in the player's inventory, they would start following the player, but it was not anticipated that since this system affected every butterfly in the game, it would use a significant amount of processing power. Similarly, when artist Mark Teare added ants to the game, every ant was accidentally set to cast a shadow, a feature at the time that was considered "the most expensive thing in the rendering", causing more lag. Gardiner stated these mistakes were an unintended result of the large amount of creative freedom the developers had, allowing them more time to include smaller details after they were finished with assigned tasks.

Charles Martinet, voice actor of several main characters from the Mario series, voices Paarthunax, a dragon.

Within the game's files is an unused NPC named "College Guard". They would have acted similarly to Hold Guards, but for The College of Winterhold.

There is a glitch in Skyrim where the player can pass through walls using kettles. All that has to be done is to pick up a kettle, and then walk or run into a wall. This can be used to leave cities without NPC's or certain graphics loading, walking underneath the map, and more.

If used in the city of Whiterun, it is possible to find a chest underneath Skyforge. This chest contains armor, gold, ingots, and ore.

Mannequins are meant to be stationary objects that display armor inside houses. Supposedly, they are programmed as NPCs with a simple script designed to make them stand still whenever they are in the player's presence. However, when a building with a mannequin inside is loaded, if the mannequin's script isn't loaded fast enough they will walk around and act like normal NPCs for a short time, a glitch that causes occasional instances of mannequins spawning away from their pedestals, or just acting like they are alive before becoming stationary again.

Silus Vesuius runs a small museum in Dawnstar about the Mythic Dawn cult from the previous Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Inside one of the display cases is a burnt page from the Mysterium Xarxes. The page cannot be stolen or moved, but if the page is struck with a weapon or magic enough times, it will transform into a wooden bucket.

There is an unused model for the "The Ring of Khajiiti", a Daedric artifact associated with both Meridia and Mephala. However, it goes unused as both Daedric Princes reward different items. The Ring of Khajiiti was present in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, so the developers may have intended for it to return.

In the Dragon Language, the word for "steal" is "Gahrot." This is a reference to Garrett, the protagonist of the Thief series.

Likewise, the word "Tafiir" translates to "thief". This is a reference to the invented word "taffer" featured in the Thief series.

In Secunda's Kiss, Red Road Pass, Tumble Arch Pass, and Steamcrag camp, you can find a weapon called the giant's club. You can not pick it up, but you can use a glitch to have a companion use it. All you have to do is take all of the weapons from your companion, tell him/her to pick it up, and they will be carrying it. They can even use it and can do damage. However, it is impossible to take it from your companion.

The names of most of the dragon priest masks mean something in Dovahzul, the language of the dragons:

• Dukaan - Dishonor
• Hevnoraak - Brutality
• Krosis - Sorrow
• Morokei - Glorious
• Nahkriin - Vengeance
• Rahgot - Anger
• Vokun - Shadow
• Volsung - Horrible
• Ahzidal - The Bitter Destroyer
• Konahrik - Warlord

The only masks that don't translate from Dovahzul are Otar and the wooden mask.

Jonah Lobe, one of the 3D artists for the game, modeled the in-game giants after his father Jim Lobe.

On February 18th 2011, Bethesda opened a challenge to deliver a baby on Skyrim's release date, November 11th 2011, and name the child "Dovahkiin".

The winners, Megan and Eric Kellermeyer, named their newborn son Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer when he was delivered on that date. In return they were given a Steam key that granted them access to every Bethesda Softworks game made, including all future releases.

The appearance of Draugr is randomized and not gender specific. This means that a Draugr can spawn with a female body and a beard.

Bethesda was approached to make a game based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice, from which the TV series Game of Thrones is also derived. Although they wanted to do it, they turned down the offer to focus on Skyrim.

The NPC Erik The Slayer is named after Erik West, who's online alias was "Immok The Slayer". Bethesda was so impressed with his knowledge of Oblivion that they gave him an in depth tour of Bethesda studios and decided to create a character based on Erik. Erik died of cancer in May 2011, and never got to see the release of Skyrim. The Tour of Bethesda's workspace was set-up by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The armbands of the game's Dragonplate Armor read "Jonahlobe" in the dragon language. Jonah Lobe is a character artist at Bethesda.

The Inn/Tavern called "The Bee and Barb" found in Riften possibly has a less-than-innocent origin, which can be found in Daggerfall's version of the book The Real Barenziah, Part III. Barenziah, who would later became both Queen of Waycrest and Queen Mother of Morrowind, finds herself trying to join the Thieves Guild while in Riften. She gains sponsorship by bedding with a Khajiit member of the guild inside a local tavern. It is explicitly stated it was painful, as male Khajiits, much like real-life felines, have barbed penises. This particular part of the story has been omitted in the later The Elder Scrolls games, stating (This passage has been censored by order of the Temple.)

In Swindler's Den is an archery Dummy with an apple on its head. This is a reference to William Tell, the real life master Crossbowman who was forced to shoot an Apple off of his son's head.

Inside of Skuldafn, Spoiler:which is normally inaccessible except for near the end of the main quest, one of the fireplaces contains a well-hidden potato with a Boiled Creme Treat and 5 charcoal sticks on top of it. The specific way the items are assembled on top of the potato makes this a reference to GLaDOS from Portal 2, specifically when Spoiler:GLaDOS is forced to inhabit a potato as a temporary power source.

There are two scrapped features found in the game's files that would've occurred if you killed an NPC. The first was if you killed a unique NPC that has a family, then later you would see the ghost of that NPC follow any of their relatives, however only NPCs with generic voice files could do this, and only a single NPC in the whole game could turn into a ghost.

The second feature was after you killed a unique NPC who had a family, later talking to any of the NPC's family members will have them comment to you about their death in their hello conversation.