The secret meaning of "Hodor"

[IRON BANK]

This is just to crack pot for me. I hope Hodor gets warged by Bran and becomes fixed so that we can actually get a pov of Hodor that would be awesome. Think if Bran wargs Hodor and we get an actually explaination of events to a pov character or Hodor becomes a pov.

[Ludd]

It seems pretty obvious to me that Hodor is a merge between two beings Hodr and W(B)alder two sons of Odin. Bran is the god Bran. All three journeyed to the underworld and were associated with winter and the return of Summer.

Yep there is mystical significance but just what will be left to the brilliant imagination of GRRM

[AngryBird]

Don't buy it.

If "Hodor" is High-Secret-Valyrian written in some book, there is no need for Hodor continuously blathering it. People will recognize its importance from a book.

If "Hodor" is High-Secret-Valyrian forgotten in all textual references, it is clearly necessary Hodor makes a Hodor-Spell unknowingly, which is clearly a plot-twist that sounds like nonsense and "exhausted good ideas".

Why a good and quiet giant with some mental problem can't just speak out a random word?

If he didn't say anything, we could not perceive him as simple-minded as him being silent all the time.

If he just spoke many random words, we would have thought of him chaotic-minded.

GRRM wanted to describe a simple-minded character, and so he effectively did by giving Hodor a single key-word to speak out.

No Secret Targaryen, No Secret Magic Word, No Secret foreshadowing.

End of Story.

[Rickeen Baratheon]

Höðr (often anglicized as Hod, Hoder, or Hodur^[1]) is god of winter - In Norse mythology at least, so, could have some kind of meaning behind that! I don't know the real meaning of Hodor! Could be something he called the horses? I don't know but I do know I'm sure we'll find out!

[Daendrew]

Hodor is Brans legs. Bran is a three eyed crow prophesied to fly. Hodor is a clue or training wheel to warg a dragon, probably Jon's dragon.

[Daendrew]

Höðr (often anglicized as Hod, Hoder, or Hodur^[1]) is god of winter - In Norse mythology at least, so, could have some kind of meaning behind that! I don't know the real meaning of Hodor! Could be something he called the horses? I don't know but I do know I'm sure we'll find out!

Maybe that's the name that must not be spoken.

[barmyscouser]

What is Hodor's disability? He can follow spoken instructions. That means he is probably completely lucid in his own mind. He just has trouble forming words. (except for "Hodor") He could be a very intelligent person for all anybody knows.

Hodor also has an extremely submissive nature. Perhaps some trauma in his past keeps him from speaking up or fighting back. But it's this absolute submission that makes him wargable. I'd like to think that hosting Bran would teach Hodor to be strong, but that's just speculation.

[barmyscouser]

Höðr (often anglicized as Hod, Hoder, or Hodur^[1]) is god of winter - In Norse mythology at least, so, could have some kind of meaning behind that! I don't know the real meaning of Hodor! Could be something he called the horses? I don't know but I do know I'm sure we'll find out!

I thought hodor was Serbo-Croatian for marklar.

[King Pellinore]

Of course, it could be the only thing he could be taught to say, his name, Walder. Some will say Hodor sounds nothing like Walder but, maybe it does to a developmentally disabled child. Yes, it can be that way, I have some experience in the matter.

[Ser Creighton]

I tend to think Hodor will follow along the lines of Norse Mythology but in the Old tongue I think it will mean Horse.

[Jojen Dayne-Reed]

Hodor worked in the stables right? Who loved horses: Lyanna.

I don't think Hodor is a magic word but something is going on there. I like this theory.

[Hajk]

Hodor is an anagram for "do rho". Rho is one of the most frequently employed symbols in mathematics and theoretical physics. This is foreshadowing that Hodor will bring Westeros out of its perpetual medieval situation and usher in modern science and technology. That will show em.

[Tywin Smokin a Blunt]

Hodor is I think the strongest proof for the "ASOIAF is Ragnarok" theory. Hodr is a god in Norse mythology and he plays a significant role in the Ragnarok myth if I remember correctly. Im not an expert on that theory, but its worth looking into and if there's an answer for what Hodor means it probably has to do with that.

[Aetta]

If there are nods to Ragnarok or any of the Edda, I do not see that GRRM is following the story so directly.

If it is at all related to Hodr the Jotunn, it is likely symbolic. I don't think our Hodor is going to be firing mistletoe at anyone. The symbolism may just be the Hodor/Walder blindly assists in the battle with the Others, and I like the idea that it is by using his own name. He himself would be the innocent and unsuspected mistletoe.

There are endless similarities in ASOIAF to the endless stories the Germanic, French and British people recorded. So far, none of it has been a straight up retelling. Another example: If Bloodraven is Nidhoggr and the CotF are the squirrels, who is the Eagle, Nidhoggr's nemesis? Little things like that which are (so far) missing from ASOIAF make it impossible to follow the Icelandic trails and solve any mysteries.

[Ser Creighton]

If there are nods to Ragnarok or any of the Edda, I do not see that GRRM is following the story so directly.

If it is at all related to Hodr the Jotunn, it is likely symbolic. I don't think our Hodor is going to be firing mistletoe at anyone. The symbolism may just be the Hodor/Walder blindly assists in the battle with the Others, and I like the idea that it is by using his own name. He himself would be the innocent and unsuspected mistletoe.

There are endless similarities in ASOIAF to the endless stories the Germanic, French and British people recorded. So far, none of it has been a straight up retelling. Another example: If Bloodraven is Nidhoggr and the CotF are the squirrels, who is the Eagle, Nidhoggr's nemesis? Little things like that which are (so far) missing from ASOIAF make it impossible to follow the Icelandic trails and solve any mysteries.

Well I would agree Martin does not draw a singular direct parallel to any one thing, it's usually multilayered. I consider the Norse mythos to be more of a clue to a bigger picture. Though you can see references to the Sigurd and the sword Gram, the Vulsunga Saga, the Barnstock tree etc...

[sleath56]

Hodor is a Pokemon warged into a giant's body.

[BRANDON GREYSTARK]

HODER = RH'LLOR .This is Grimm's Law of Linguistics .The some sounds soften . The Rh turn into h. Maybe it just BS .

[The King in Black]

Hodor is the Great Other man. I'm telling you, twist of the millenium.

[kfowler]

Hodor = Höðr norse god of winter. The name also means warrior. How it got in Walder's head I don't know. Maybe he knows something we don't. Maybe he doesn't even know that he knows something we don't.

[Walda]

So... ON + WF = H?

As we have seen from Lord Walder's numerous children, none of them is particularly tall. If Hodor is indeed Walder and Nan's, then the "giant blood" might have come from Nan?

Hodor is Old Nan's grandson or great-grandson, and Lord Walder was never into older women, so no.

 

Old Nan is tiny, while giantesses are usually not. I think she is more likely Walder Frey's sister than a giantess. Although I don't think its very likely she has 'Frey blood', either. I mean, the Twins is not one of the major houses of the Realm, but (until the Red Wedding) they were never such a no-count house that they would send their girls off to be wet-nurses to the Glovers or Karstarks.

 

Old Nan was too old to be Uncle Brandon's wetnurse, so she must have come to winterfell for  great-great-grand-uncle Brandon, the son of either Lysana Karstark or Lyanne Glover. That would put Nan in her nineties, and make her more probably Hodor's great-great-grandmother (I'm assuming Hodor is in his teens/ early twenties. If he is closer to/over thirty, she maybe be his great-grandmother, as sort-of claimed in GoT.)

 

Still, Nan has a lot of stories about Harrenhal, as well as scary stories about Winter and the Wildlings, (those very probably came from serving in Northern houses). So  I'm guessing Hodor's father or paternal grandfather was a Frey, which is where he got his wits, and his mother is a Clegane, which is where he gets his looks.  Nan is either a paternal grandmother/ great-grandmother, or his mother's father's mother (or grand-mother).

 

If  Osha is correct when she says "The women take human men for lovers, and it’s from them the half bloods come.”(GoT, Ch.53 Bran VI ) then the giantess must be his mother, or her mother, or her mother,  or her mother, as only female half-bloods are fertile (as far as humans are concerned. Maybe Hodor could start a family with a female giant.)

 

His sweet and gentle nature must be all his own, as it isn't a quality that stands out in giants, Wildlings, Freys, Cleganes, Starks, Karstarks,or Glovers,