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What does Hodor mean?


DocBean

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The poor guy is just asking someone to hold the door for him, since he's always carrying someone else around. After a while, "Hold the door" became "Hold the doorHold the doorHoldoorHodoor. Dammit! Hold the door!" His mind finally snapped, and now all he can say is Hodor.

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The poor guy is just asking someone to hold the door for him, since he's always carrying someone else around. After a while, "Hold the door" became "Hold the doorHold the doorHoldoorHodoor. Dammit! Hold the door!" His mind finally snapped, and now all he can say is Hodor.

:rofl: Very nice!!!I hope somebody will finally hold the door for the poor guy and he'll change his name to "Thankyou".

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I've read theories that "Hodor" is a simpleton's mispronunciation of some word with potential significance to his past, "Other" or "honor," perhaps.

A Google search also reveals that Hodor (various spellings, most commonly Hod?) was a blind god who appears to have been attributed to things like darkness and winter in the northern European mythologies. He is tricked by Loki into killing his twin brother Balder (various spellings) with an arrow or spear. One of Loki's domains is fire, and some variants of the story have Loki guiding blind Hod's hand.

Pretty interesting/suspicious. Certainly some crackpot theories could be born from accepting the above as premises.

I like that.

It could just signify however that GRRM doe the same thing as I do when trying to name something, go to Behindthename.com and type into to the "search for words in meaning" bit, a bunch of attributes to do withe the character in question or the story in general.

Type in Noble, up pops "Arya", Honourable or Noble in Sanskrit, type in Raven, up comes Bran, meaning Raven in Welsh, type in fire, up come Hodor, who knows!

Incidentally how cool is the Bran/Raven thing? This is what came up on Behind the name

Bran: Means "raven" in Welsh. In Welsh legend Bran the Blessed (called also Bendigeid Vran) was the son of the god Llyr. Later Welsh legends describe him as a king of Britain who was killed attacking Ireland.

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this is a really cool thread. i always forget about hodor; i'm afraid his story will be lost once bran starts warging him regularly. i do hope we get some insight into Old Nan and Hodor's past.

i like the Norse God theory the best, i think it fits really well, with Winter and all, and the blindness just another disability.

CERISE f French

Means "cherry" in French.

VARIUS m Ancient Roman

Roman family name which meant "versatile" in Latin...

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I'm always very disturbed when I read about Bran warging into Hodor, he may be (not sure what's politically correct now a days) simple minded, but that doesn't make him less of a human being. He isn't an animal.

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An animal of sorts, maybe.

Hodor

Polish and Slovak: from the eastern Slavic personal name Chodor, a vernacular form of Teodor (i.e. Theodore).

Not too many Theodore's in the story so far so little can be assumed there regarding parentage, history, etc.

But, Theodore does mean "God's gift".

Therefore...

Hodor = giant bear with a divine bow.

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I'm always very disturbed when I read about Bran warging into Hodor, he may be (not sure what's politically correct now a days) simple minded, but that doesn't make him less of a human being. He isn't an animal.

Yeah I've always been kinda disturbed by this too. Especially when Bran does warg Hodar he tastes bile in his throat - which means Hodar was more than aware of what was happening and was absolutly terrified. It's different with Summer because he's clearly so joined to Bran that they're able to shre consciousness. But warging into Hodar is going to lead Bran to a drak place IMO

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The Bran chapter in AGOT, where Hodor is running around naked in the pools in the Stark Godswood sparked a connection.

I like to think that Hodor is a reference to the Norse God Hoenir. And I like to think that Bran is Mimir, the god who gained great wisdom and knowledge after drinking from Mimir's Well. The two were hostages of the Vanir. The Vanir beheaded Mimir and sent his head back to Asgard.

Odin traded an eye for a drink from Mimir's Well and eventually enchanted Mimir's head so that it would continue to speak words of wisdom. Mimir's decapitated head acts as an oracle, seeing the past and the future.

I like that Bran is a potential vessel for great wisdom and insight. Even crippled or maimed like the beheaded Mimir.

I like that Hodor has little purpose without Bran, much like Hoenir was rather useless without the wisdom of Mimir. I also like that Hoenir was supposed to be relatively a dimwit but handsome with long legs.

Oh, and the two have a forest. Hodmimir's Forest.

I also like how these two Gods play a major role in Ragnarok. They are one of the few gods to survive. Hodmimir's Forest cannot be destroyed by Surtur's Fire Sword. Surtur is the leader of the Fire Giants from the South. The only two humans who survive Ragnarok emerge from Hodmimir's Forest.

... Or Hodor could just be a sound the guy makes. :dunno:

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Actually it's really interesting all the different things you came up with :)

I'm simple (like Hodor :lol: ) and went to Urban dictionary

Hodor

A word used for a variety of things, ranging from a fierce battlecry to expressing one's emotions like a retarded stable boy

There's also a Hodor family crest

I personally think it's a fun speculation but probably has no deeper meaning to it :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...
I always thought, if it was a word, it was from the Old Tongue, i.e. what the giants still speak. Maybe something simple, like please or hello or my name is.

^This :agree:

When I first read AGoT I wondered if there was any meaning to the word Hodor or was it some random word the simple minded giant started to say due to nothing more than his simple mindedness

But when I read the rest of the series{the series as it stands now 1-4}

and seeing Hodor had a bigger part to play than "simple minded stable boy" What with taking Bran beyond The Wall. And characters saying he has a bit of giant in him... even if only in jest.

Also when later going through AGoT again the part where Hodor and Bran are together,I don't remember where, maybe in the springs, something like the following occurs

-"Hodor" says Hodor

"Hodor" Bran agrees, wondering what it meant.-

Even though Bran may have been thinkng only what Hodor meant at the time it just made me think of it having a true meaning in the Old Tongue. Though perhaps a bit more meaningful than "hello or my name is"

But who knows. Maybe I'm off my rocker, and Hodor is just a plot device for Bran as a means of travel past The Wall :dunno:

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