- Title
- Hodor: The Transubstantiation of the word Made Death, The Theological Real in Game of Thrones
- Creator
- Haywood, Loraine
- Relation
- Theology and Game of Thrones p. 301-316
- Relation
- https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781978707627/Theology-and-Game-of-Thrones
- Publisher
- Lexington Books
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- The closing scene in Game of Thrones, season 6 episode 5, (“The Door”), reveals the mystery behind the word/name “Hodor”. In this scene, the characters of Bran, Meera, and Hodor leave the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, trying to escape from the approaching undead army of Wights and White Walkers. Hodor’s body is pressed firmly against a door that holds back both death and the dead - the metaphor/cliché of being at death’s door. Meera takes Bran and escapes into the blizzard, calling out “Hold the door!” Bran is still in a trance, his consciousness travelling back in time to Wylis’ past. Bran and Wylis (young Hodor) are standing in the Winterfell courtyard; they are caught in a gaze in liminal space. Bran merges the present escape with this impossibility, cutting across the void of time, and psychologically manipulating (‘warging’ into) Wylis/Hodor. He disrupts the symbolic order of young Wylis’ life, causing a fissure – an intrusion of the Real. An intruder on the future who breaches the past, Bran acts as a bridge, opening a door to what should be held back. In the past, the young Wylis is traumatised by his encounter across the void in time and has a seizure where he conflates Meera’s words “hold the door”. What emerges from this liminal space is the word made flesh – “Hodor”.
- Subject
- Game of Thrones; Hodor; theology; pop culture
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1485128
- Identifier
- uon:51492
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781978707627
- Language
- eng
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