[Theory] Brynden the bodysnatcher (spoilers all books)

[The Grey Dayne]

[Spoilers for All books, Bloodraven, Bran, Hodor, Skinchaning]

 

There's something about Hodor's innocence, obedience and child-like nature that makes him incredibly endearing. This alone is cause for suspicion about the gentle-giant, simple and wholesome characters are few and far between in the Grimdark story of A Song Of Ice and Fire. This essay as an attempt to penetrate the façade of Hodor, to reveal the soul of the black-blooded skinchanger Bloodraven the lurks within.

I posit that through skinchanging Walder and breaking his mind, Bloodraven has transformed him into the golem like creature we know as Hodor allowing him to inconspicuously monitor events south of the Wall in the guise of a human, while also enacting his intricate plots, through body  of a person understood by others to be a simpleton.

The main precedent for this thesis is the well established use of other creatures as what could be considered his ‘spirit-spies’, namely Mormont’s Raven, another companion to a Stark, a source of comic relief and an peculiar personality, and is often dismissed by other characters. I propose that Mormont’s Raven and Hodor represent a dichotomy between brains and brawn, while the Raven is involved in political machinations at Castle Black and beyond through it’s use of speech, Hodor is mainly limited to his physical actions though these are no less important. As you may be aware, Bloodraven is very much symbolic of the Norse god Odin, an enigmatic, shape-shifting trickster who is accompanied by several animal companions, including a pair of ravens: Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory respectively, who act as his eyes and ears in Midgard. Odin may lack for a giant, but it should be apparent that there is little harmony between the souls of Bloodraven and Wylis in the giant’s body. There is at least one analogues to Bloodraven destroying the mind of a giant, the simplest is the brothers Odin, Vili and Vé slaying Ymir, the ancestor to the Jötnar (race of giants). This is a significant event in the Norse creation myth as it is from his body parts that the world is fashioned:

From Ymir's flesh the earth was formed,

and from his bones the hills,

the heaven from the skull of that ice-cold giant,

and from his blood the sea

This notion of a dead being going into the creation of the world is replicated in the philosophy of the folk-religion of the Old Gods, these are the thoughts of the skinchanger Varamyr Six Skins (Lump):

‘Gone into the trees and streams, gone into the rocks and earth. Gone to dirt and ashes. That was what the woods witch told his mother, the day Bump died. Lump did not want to be a clod of earth.’

From this passage we get a keen sense that death is regarded as a separation of a persons soul from their body, something Varamyr himself experiences when he freezes to death. In this regard Hodor's true self has been killed figuratively by having his body seized by Bloodraven.

the most important aspect of Ymir relation to Hodor is that he receives his sustenance by suckling milk from the primeval cow Auðumbla, this portrayel of a giant taking the form of a suckling babe is carried over into ASOIAF with Hodor’s portrayal as a manchild, furthermore Ymir procreates, but not through copulation unlike a mature man. Given that Bloodraven has taken the form of the manchild, it stands to reason that the same imagery can be applied to him too:

Ymir suckles from the cow Audumbla  Nicolai Abildgaard: 1790

‘Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child.’

This imagery is applied to Robert Arryn a particularly immature child who takes on the mantle of a man by becoming the head of House Arryn. Like other humans being skinchanged such as Thistle and Hodor he suffers from seizures brought on by such attempts, a vulnerability of his own potential greenseer powers (through his Lothston ancestry). Another likeness with Bloodraven and Ymir is captured in this passage:

‘She opened her robe and drew out a pale, heavy breast, tipped with red. The boy grabbed for it eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck.’

Lysa’s breast represents the weirwood tree with its pallet of white and red, more over it is that from which Robert draws sustenance, just as Bloodravens corpse is sustained by the weirwood. Another important scene is Robert Arryn playing with his doll amidst the snow castle:

"Winterfell is the seat of House Stark," Sansa told her husband-to-be. "The great castle of the north."

"It's not so great." The boy knelt before the gatehouse. "Look, here comes a giant to knock it down." He stood his doll in the snow and moved it jerkily. "Tromp tromp I'm a giant, I'm a giant," he chanted. "Ho ho ho, open your gates or I'll mash them and smash them." Swinging the doll by the legs, he knocked the top off one gatehouse tower and then the other.

It was more than Sansa could stand. "Robert, stop that." Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll's head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow.

Lord Robert's mouth trembled. "You killlllllllled him," he wailed. Then he began to shake. It started with no more than a little shivering, but within a few short heartbeats he had collapsed across the castle, his limbs flailing about violently. White towers and snowy bridges shattered and fell on all sides. Sansa stood horrified, but Petyr Baelish seized her cousin's wrists and shouted for the maester.

The scene shows Robert symbolise Bloodraven’s control of Hodor, note the “Ho ho ho” and the jerky movement like the kind Thistle's body experiences when Varamyr seizes control. To reinforce this connection, Robert himself suffers a similar incident in the scene, a putative invasion by the singers within the Eyrie's weirwood throne. Furthermore the sack Winterfell (represented by Robert’s collapse) is something I believe Bloodraven had a hand in by influencing both Theon and Ramsay, and an action prior to that is the burning of the library tower by Hodor which I shall address an accompanying essay on Bloodraven’s role in the feigned attempt on Bran’s life, which is represented by the comparatively more minor damage the doll itself inflicts. The fact that Sansa and Robert both tear the doll apart may foreshadow Bran and Bloodraven both seizing control of Hodor’s body in a manner which results in his death, with Bloodraven making Bran feel guilty over the event.

The most relevant connection between Norse mythology and our story is the stealing of wisdom. In the poem Vafþrúðnismál, Odin seeks to obtain the wisdom of the giant Vafþrúðnir through a contest of wits, testing each other’s knowledge of the mythological world. It plays out like Riddles in the Dark chapter of the Hobbit, with Vafþrúðnir losing the wager and with it his head which Odin takes to Asgard. More pertinent is the story of the theft of the Mead of Poetry, which is made from the blood of the wise man Kasvir, transforming the drinker into a Skald (poet). The brew eventually comes in the possession of the giant Suttungr who stashed inside the Hnitbjörg mountain (consider the fact mountains are also representative of giants in our story). In his unending quest for wisdom, Odin uses trickery and the form of a snake and then an eagle to drink all the Mead in a single draught, spilling only a few drops into Midgard during the giant’s pursuit, the ‘rhymester's share’ which is the source of all inferior poetic inspiration. I propose that Bloodraven’s stealing of Hodor’s wits while leaving only the residue of his Hodoring is our author’s reimagining of the aforementioned tale, just one of many epic poems which ASOIAF emulates. Like the mead-less Suttungr, Hodor is one of the few giants in ASOIAF who doesn’t have a thirst to match his height (e.g. Wun Wun, Greatjon, Robert, Sandor, Gregor, Dunk).

Perhaps the most blatant connection between Hodor, Bloodraven and Norse mythology is the naming of the former after the god Höðr:

"One of the Æsir is named Höðr: he is blind. He is of sufficient strength, but the gods would desire that no occasion should rise of naming this god, for the work of his hands shall long be held in memory among gods and men."

- Brodeur's translation of the Prose Eda

Höðr which is anglicised to Hod, Hoder, or Hodur, is the son of Odin who is tricked into slaying his twin brother Baldr by Loki who Bloodraven embodies. Baldr and his mother Frigg both had dreams of his death, in response she made everything object in the realm vow never to harm Baldr, though she neglected to include mistletoe (the reasoning is disputed, it may have been too young or unimportant). This allowed the Gods to amuse themselves by throwing objects at Baldr without effect, however Loki had learned of Baldr’s weakness and made a spear/arrow from mistletoe, which he equipped Höðr with and guided his aim, resulting in Baldr’s death which is harbinger of Ragnarök. For this act, Odin and the giantess Rindr gave birth to Váli who grew to adulthood within a day and slew Höðr. Readers aware of the mythical astronomy of ASOIAF will be able to recognise this story as one which our author has borrowed from for other important aspects of ASOIAF.

Hödr stood outside the ring of men, because he was blind. Then spake Loki to him: 'Why dost thou not shoot at Baldr?' He answered: 'Because I see not where Baldr is; and for this also, that I am weaponless.' Then said Loki: 'Do thou also after the manner of other men, and show Baldr honor as the other men do. I will direct thee where he stands; shoot at him with this wand.' Hödr took Mistletoe and shot at Baldr, being guided by Loki: the shaft flew through Baldr, and he fell dead to the earth; and that was the greatest mischance that has ever befallen among gods and men."

- Brodeur's translation

Hodr slays Baldr Jakob Sigurosson (1765-1766)

 

While we know very little of Hodor’s actions prior to the books or whether they will come to embody the slaying of Baldr later, his manipulation by Loki is precisely what Bloodraven’s skinchanging of Hodor represents. The seizing of a human’s body is considered abominable, just as Loki is punished by chaining him to a rock with his son’s entrails while a serpent drips poison onto him.

The relationship between the Gods is also captured in ASOIAF, for instance Loki is father to the wolf Fenrir (Bran) who bites off the right hand of Týr (Jaime) the god of war when Fenrir is bound to a stone slab, just as Jaime’s crippling of Bran in turn results in the amputation of the hand which threw him. Given this well known demonstration of the connection between ASOIAF and Norse mythology, we can also assume that Odin’s fatherhood of Hödr is also testament to a relationship between Bloodraven and Hodor.

 

I’ll leave the mythological comparison for now as there are many details within the text itself which serve as symbolic evidence for Bloodraven occupying Hodor’s skin. The first is an association between the Green dreams involving the opening of Bran’s third eye, and Hodor’s seemingly deliberate attempts to open Bran’s head:

‘Bran touched his forehead, between his eyes. The place where the crow had pecked him was still burning, but there was nothing there, no blood, no wound. He felt weak and dizzy. He tried to get out of bed, but nothing happened.’

‘in the dark it pecked at his brow, driving its terrible sharp beak deep into his skull. He screamed until he was certain his lungs must burst. The pain was an axe splitting his head apart, but when the crow wrenched out its beak all slimy with bits of bone and brain, Bran could see again.’

These dreams even give Bran the impression that opening of his third eye is a literal act and is therefore supportive of the connection between the Greendreams and Bran’s head injuries inflicted by Hodor.

‘When he was alone, Bran tried to open his third eye, but he didn't know how. No matter how he wrinkled his forehead and poked at it, he couldn't see any different than he'd done before.’

Here’s the passage describing the damage to Bran’s skull, there are also many instances of him having to duck his head under ceilings and doorways:

‘The stableboy stood near seven feet tall all by himself; on his back Bran's head almost brushed the ceiling. He ducked low as they passed through the door. One time Hodor smelled bread baking and ran to the kitchens, and Bran got such a crack that Maester Luwin had to sew up his scalp. Mikken had given him a rusty old visorless helm from the armory, but Bran seldom troubled to wear it.’

It’s difficult to say why Bloodraven may want to damage Bran’s brain to potentiate his psychic abilities, we’re aware that he may have used his Crows to have Bran thrown from the tower, which resulted in his coma, a period of total darkness and disconnection which we understand to be important for such abilities (recall Arya’s blindness and Bran hidden in the crypts). The Nature of these abilities are hard to discern they may be a type of savant syndrome which can be brought on by brain damage. Regardless of it’s potential purpose, it definitely parallels Bloodraven in the form of the Three eyed crow, also Maester Luwin closing up the wound likely represents his agenda in trying to discourage Bran’s interest in Greenseers and magic.

The use of Hodor as a mount for Bran is ubiquitous in the story. Consider firstly all the other instances in which mounts which can be ridden into battle have been skinchanged, there is the horsemanship of Dany, Lyanna and Brandon, the genetic prerequisite for dragon riding, Greenseers riding elks and the snow bear that Varamyr six skins rides a thirteen foot tall snow bear which is certainly the most giant like, consider the Wight bear which is animated/enslaved through a type of psychic connection:

"Bloody huge," and a third voice said, "A giant!" and a fourth insisted, "A bear, a bear!"

‘The bear that had come up the Fist had no hair left on its rotted flesh. He didn't want to think about bears.’

Pretty pig and Crunch although not themselves subject to skinchanging, are important mounts which correspond to two animals which are suspected having been skinchanged by Bloodraven; the boar which kills Robert and the old blind dog that lives at the fingers, which sansa laments isn’t Lady, which may have been skinchanged by Bloodraven. Hodor’s own similarity to conventional mounts is provided several times over:

"Hodor is a man, not a mule to be beaten."

'"Now there's an ugly horse," he said of Hodor'

“see, they're talking to each other. Maybe hodor means 'I love you' in horse."

There are also several small-minded giants who come on the influence of bloodraven or some other form of psychic interference. Small Paul assists Chett and the other mutineers on the premise that he will receive Mormont’s raven as a pet, Dunk in The Mystery Knight, Robert with his recurrent dreams of Rhaegar and Ser Robert Strong’s reanimation.

In addition to such associations, there are many uses of Hodor symbolically to represent the presence of Bloodraven, consider the following dream sent by the Greenseer:

'The gargoyles watched him ascend. Their eyes glowed red as hot coals in a brazier. Perhaps once they had been lions, but now they were twisted and grotesque. Bran could hear them whispering to each other in soft stone voices terrible to hear. He must not listen, he told himself, he must not hear, so long as he did not hear them he was safe. But when the gargoyles pulled themselves loose from the stone and padded down the side of the tower to where Bran clung, he knew he was not safe after all. "I didn't hear," he wept as they came closer and closer, "I didn't, I didn't."

 

He woke gasping, lost in darkness, and saw a vast shadow looming over him. "I didn't hear," he whispered, trembling in fear, but then the shadow said "Hodor," and lit the candle by the bedside, and Bran sighed with relief.'

The imagery of the gargoyles with their burning red eyes recalls this following:

‘The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull.’

Red eyes are also typical of Heart trees and singers chosen by the gods to receive the gift of greensight. Furthermore the legend behind gargoyles is that they were the heads and necks of dragons, hardened through fire, which St. Romanus  mounted on churches to ward of evil spirits, therefore it also alludes to his Targaryen ancestry.

The irony of the passage is that Bran is unconcerned with Hodor as the shadow, when in fact Bloodraven has been observing Bran and his nightmare, giving the scene another creepy dimension. Hodor’s as a vast shadow also pertains to Bloodraven’s tenure as Lord Commanded of the Night’s Watch, as well as his affinity for shadows and the dark in terms of deeds and philosophy, one mantra is sufficient to illustrate this:

"The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."

Also bastards take the form of shadows, think of Melisandre’s shadow babies and consider the following:

‘Catelyn softened then, to see his pain. Eddard Stark had married her in Brandon's place, as custom decreed, but the shadow of his dead brother still lay between them, as did the other, the shadow of the woman he would not name, the woman who had borne him his bastard son.’

Another aspect bran’s awakening is Hodor's lighting of a candle may indicate that Bloodraven has utilised them in his past, which would be unsurprising given his reputation as a sorcerer and spymaster. Alternatively it may represent how Bloodravens ability to see through trees and animals as well as send receptive individual dreams are analogous to the powers of a glass candle. The flame of the singular candle could also be associated with his red eye, watching bran.

One of the motifs most strongly associated with Bloodraven is sight through a single eye which we see applied to characters which bare many other associations such as Beric Dondarrion, the undead rogue, seated on a throne of weirwood roots. These same motifs are applied to Hodor, albeit with a greater degree of subtlety, appropriate for this particular mystery:

'His face was all ugly from the beating, his nose swollen and one eye closed.'

(Hodor after a bruising from the Ironborn)

‘The snow was falling again, wet and heavy. Hodor walked with one eye frozen shut, his thick brown beard a tangle of hoarfrost, icicles drooping from the ends of his bushy mustache.'

The relevancy of this description is twofold as Hodor’s moustache is an excellent match for the Winterfell Heart tree as observed by Theon:

'Even the godswood was turning white. A film of ice had formed upon the pool beneath the heart tree, and the face carved into its pale trunk had grown a mustache of little icicles.'

As Bloodraven is fused to the Weirwood network we can consider the two to be a single entity and it is through the Weirwood network that Bloodraven is able to control the form of Hodor, furthermore Hodor as a human with giant's blood can also be likened to Weirwoods which are described as such and function as metaphorical giants.

 

Throughout ASOIAF there exists the idea that one’s descendants take on the form of their ancestors (e.g. Azor Ahai reborn), following this logic it possible to recognise a parallel between Old Nan and Bloodraven, an aspect of each of them going into the making of Hodor. Old Nan is suspected of being the longest lived human in westeros, the other contender being Aemon, though in truth we know it to be Bloodraven in his state of undeath. Like Old Nan, Bloodraven is gradually shrinking, receding into the tree:

‘Hodor was nearly seven feet tall. It was hard to believe that he was the same blood as Old Nan. Bran wondered if he would shrivel up as small as his great-grandmother when he was old. It did not seem likely, even if Hodor lived to be a thousand.’

‘A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through.’

The idea of Hodor living for a thousand years hints at the potential for Bloodraven’s consciousness to persist within the weirwood network indefinitely. Bloodraven, Old Nan alike have lived long enough to witness the death of almost all of their family, and over the course of their long lives have been known by many names, though most have been forgotten, including their given names and are now know by a single moniker.

‘The last greenseer, the singers called him, but in Bran's dreams he was still a three-eyed crow. When Meera Reed had asked him his true name, he made a ghastly sound that might have been a chuckle. "I wore many names when I was quick, but even I once had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden."’

Old Nan and Bloodraven both embody aspects of The Crone and are very important figures in Bran’s storyline in terms of shaping Bran’s desires and perception of the past, the former through recounting stories by the oral tradition, the latter through the more vivid process of exploring the memories in the Weirwoods.

Now that we have considered some of the symbolic evidence of Hodor’s skin changing by Bloodraven, we shall consider the narrative elements which serve as evidence.

One of the main reasons for stealing Walder’s skin and breaking his mind is to create a dependent within Winterfell which can fulfil various criteria within the constraints of a skin changed human, one which isn't consistently occupied by Bloodraven who must take other forms. I should preface this explanation with the assumption that Bloodraven anticipated Bran’s birth and planned his eventual crippling before he seized Walder’s body, failing that it is likely that he chose Walder because his Giant’s blood as a vulnerability to being skinchanged (rather than for his prodigious strength) and that he would serve a useful purpose regardless of whether a Greenseer was born, as I stated earlier, bloodravens involvement seems to extend beyond the political consequences.

As I mentioned previously, Hodor’s role as Bran’s mount is critical to his delivery to Bloodraven’s cave, and his strength and endurance also make him an excellent body guard, like the giants Dunk, Sandor and Ser Robert Strong, as a precaution against foes encountered foes north and south of the wall such as the wights and Ramsay's men. The breaking of Hodor’s mind preserves all the aforementioned functions while also making Hodor less conspicuous as a spy (one can divulge information in his presence with the expectation he is unable to understand or recall it), easier to imitate as Bran demonstrates with his own skinchanging, a component of this is the ability for Bloodraven to leave Hodor in a dormant state (that is to say not presently skinchanged) allowing him to act independently (relaxing in the hot pools for instance), but in a very limited fashion owing to his mental handicap, meaning Hodor's behaviour remains relatively unchanged, not that people would think question anything untoward, not least of all because the only answer they’d receive from him is ‘Hodor’.

I propose that the strongest logical evidence of Bloodraven skinchanging Hodor is the arrival of Coldhands with Sam and Gilly at the Nightfort, a matter of hours after Bran and his party, which was necessary for Sam to guide them through the Black Gate and introduce them to Coldhands. I for one don’t trust in coincidences in the books, instead i think that Bloodraven through the eyes of Hodor coordinated the arrival of Coldhands, who stays in communication through the language of the ravens and is known to take false routes to delay the journies of those he is guiding in the behest of Bloodraven, thus allowing Bran to arrive at the Nightfort first.  To reinforce the idea that Bloodraven is trying to facilitate their use of the secret passage we have this behaviour:

‘Hodor peered over the knee-high lip of the well and said, "HODOR!" The word echoed down the well, "Hodorhodorhodorhodor," fainter and fainter, "hodorhodorhodorhodor," until it was less than a whisper. Hodor looked startled. Then he laughed, and bent to scoop a broken piece of slate off the floor.

"Hodor, don't!" said Bran, but too late. Hodor tossed the slate over the edge. "You shouldn't have done that. You don't know what's down there. You might have hurt something, or . . . or woken something up."

Hodor looked at him innocently. "Hodor?"’

It may also be that Bloodraven was trying to exacerbate Bran’s paranoia about the Nightfort in an effort to get him to cross over into the lands beyond the wall, something he was reluctant to do. Bloodraven may have also deliberately interefered with Bran’s skinchanging of Hodor to prevent him from irrationally killing Sam which would have foiled his plan:

‘A huge black shape heaved itself up into the darkness and lurched toward the moonlight, and the fear rose up in Bran so thick that before he could even think of drawing Hodor's sword the way he'd meant to, he found himself back on the floor again with Hodor roaring "Hodor hodor HODOR," the way he had in the lake tower whenever the lightning flashed.’

Another tell on bloodraven’s part his Hodor’s relief on recognising Sam (whom he is familiar with under the guise of Mormont’s Raven), meaning that his plan has come to fruition:

‘Hodor?" Hodor squatted down on his haunches to peer at the man in the net. "Hodor," he said again, hooting.

As they descend the steps of the well we have this passage:

‘The well grew darker and colder with every turn. When Bran finally lifted his head around to look back up the shaft, the top of the well was no bigger than a half-moon. "Hodor," Hodor whispered, "Hodorhodorhodorhodorhodorhodor," the well whispered back. The water sounds were close, but when Bran peered down he saw only blackness.’

As the well is the sight of the Black Gate, a white Weirwood with a face, it can be interpreted that the Bloodraven, through the use of the Weirwoods, imitates the speech of Hodor, much like an echo, and when Bran looks to the source of the echos he sees only blackness, which Bloodraven personifies.

Earlier in the story Hodor refuses to take Bran down to the crypts following his dream of Eddard's death (sent by Bloodraven), ostensibly because of his fear of the dark:

"Go down into the crypts. When I woke, I told him to take me down, to see if Father was truly there. At first he didn't know what I was saying, but I got him to the steps by telling him to go here and go there, only then he wouldn't go down. He just stood on the top step and said 'Hodor,' like he was scared of the dark, but I had a torch. It made me so mad I almost gave him a swat in the head, like Old Nan is always doing." He saw the way the maester was frowning and hurriedly added, "I didn't, though."

This isn't a problem when Hodor's cooperation is required more urgently such as their disappearance from Theon, so one must assume that this Bloodraven acting to frustrate Bran's curiosity and plays into Luwin’s willingness to dispel such notions and so accompanies him to the crypts. Consequent to their encounter with reckon, Luwin attempting to dispel the idea of meaningful dreams but his histories and Osha's take on the subject only increases Bran interest in the culture of the children.

Another noteworthy manipulation of Hodor by Bloodraven is the thunderstorm at Queenscrown in which Hodor’s shouting, is the impetus for Bran’s skinchanging of Hodor, something he achieves without the assistance of integration into the Weirwood network, partly because of his genotype (descent from house Lothston), but more so because Hodor is amenable to skinchanging because of his prior occupation by Bloodraven, a concept he himself explains:

Slipping into Summer's skin had become as easy for him as slipping on a pair of breeches once had been, before his back was broken. Changing his own skin for a raven's night-black feathers had been harder, but not as hard as he had feared, not with these ravens. "A wild stallion will buck and kick when a man tries to mount him, and try to bite the hand that slips the bit between his teeth," Lord Brynden said, "but a horse that has known one rider will accept another. Young or old, these birds have all been ridden. Choose one now, and fly."

 

One should also keep in mind the fact that skinchanged animals can also be inhabited by more than one consciousness, as with the ravens containing children of the forest, and Orell’s eagle containing the shadow of his soul, while under the control of Varamyr. This conduciveness to skinchanging is observed in Hodor:

‘Bran shook his head. "I don't know." But he did. I reached for him, the way I reach for Summer. He had been Hodor for half a heartbeat. It scared him.’

‘The big stableboy no longer fought him as he had the first time, back in the lake tower during the storm. Like a dog who has had all the fight whipped out of him, Hodor would curl up and hide whenever Bran reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not even Bran could touch him. No one wants to hurt you, Hodor, he said silently, to the child-man whose flesh he'd taken. I just want to be strong again for a while. I'll give it back, the way I always do.’

The resistance Walder displayed to Bran’s skinchanging may have been a reaction to an unfamiliar presence, having been accustomed to Bloodraven for many decades. By causing Bran to take control of Hodor to avert their capture, Blooraven potentiates Bran’s later temptations which sees him skinchange Hodor with no purpose other than to explore the caves and experience the sensation of walking. I believe that the purpose of encouraging such actions is to develop Bran’s powers as a skinchanger, all the while disregarding basic morality and the code of skinchanging outlined by Varamyr: that a skinchanger consuming human flesh or occupying a human’s body are both considered abominations, but in my opinion likely serve as dark catalysts for the power of a skin changer.

‘Abomination. That had always been Haggon's favorite word. Abomination, abomination, abomination. To eat of human meat was abomination, to mate as wolf with wolf was abomination, and to seize the body of another man was the worst abomination of all. Haggon was weak, afraid of his own power. He died weeping and alone when I ripped his second life from him. Varamyr had devoured his heart himself. He taught me much and more, and the last thing I learned from him was the taste of human flesh.’

I recommend reading essays about cold hands and the mysterious sow he finds in the midst of the haunted forest, to cut a long story short, Bloodraven through his agent Coldhands feeds Bran and his party the flesh of the Night’s Watch deserters, Bloodraven even expresses his satisfaction while hodoring obscurely:

"Who were they? Wildlings?"

Meera turned the meat to cook the other side. Hodor was chewing and swallowing, muttering happily under his breath. Only Jojen seemed aware of what was happening as Coldhands turned his head to stare at Bran. "They were foes."

Men of the Night's Watch. "You killed them. You and the ravens. Their faces were all torn, and their eyes were gone." Coldhands did not deny it.

I’m certain there is further evidence of Bloodraven skin changing hodor, the current form of the essay was composed without a complete rereading of all the chapters involving Hodor so there’s likely more corroboration, as well as further precedent in the form of myths which have inspired the story.

My essay on the Catspaw is a direct follow up to this theory and was thusly inspired.

(this a post from my wordpress by the same name)

[Ebrose]

Spoilers from where? Books or show?

[The Grey Dayne]

books only, also the show is so inconsistent that it's hard to interpret logically

[Ebrose]

9 minutes ago, The Grey Dayne said:

books only, also the show is so inconsistent that it's hard to interpret logically

Thanks! Good to know. I'll take a look as soon as I can, then. Too many threads with show spoilers lately, so I needed to be careful ^^

[The Grey Dayne]

I've been watching preston jacob's reviews, I can assure you that the show timeline is super dodgy and hasnt really spoiled anything from TWOW thus far