What does Hodor mean? Game of Thrones season 6 actor Kristian Nairn weighs in
Is he secretly allied with the White Walkers?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It’s perhaps not Game of Thrones’ biggest or most dramatic mystery, but exactly why Hodor can only say “Hodor” and what it means is nevertheless intriguing every time it comes blurted out of his mouth.
Not even Kristian Nairn, who plays the character, is privy to the explanation, which presumably only exists in George R. R. Martin’s head (and maybe now D.B. Weiss and David Benioff’s), but he gave his two cents to the Huffington Post on the subject anyway:
“I think the god of winter in Norse mythology is something like Höðr and George calls on North mythology in his writing a lot…and really does he do anything by accident? I don’t know. It could also be part of the whole ‘winter is coming’ thing, the White Walkers, he might be somehow connected to them - the word ‘Hodor’ might mean something to them - but who knows, he might have been traumatised and seen something in the crypt to do with the Others or the White Walkers in Winterfell.”
As for what he’d like it to mean, he had a pretty spectacular idea for a sub-plot:
“Obviously i’m completely biased but i’d like it to be a dragon and the word to control it is ‘Hodor’ - he somehow tames this dragon with the word. I don’t think that’s going to happen, I have to say!”
While some sort of crippling childhood event is probably most likely, the internet has some pretty grand theories for the character’s importance (which Nairn was presumably referencing).
One goes that Hodor is associated with the White Walkers and maybe even their god, or an agent of the Night’s King whom we saw in season 5, and could potentially be a thorn in the side of Melisandre and her Red God.
Personally I’d like to see the matter settled in a spin-off show, where Hodor goes hodoring around Westeros in search of himself.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments