Before Game of Thrones became the biggest show on television, it was but a humble book series—A Song of Ice and Fire—written by George R.R. Martin. However, even then it had created a cult Internet following, including the fan website Westeros.org. Back in February 2008, the site’s forums saw some lively discussion about where the unusual name Hodor came from.
One user, Myrddin, in jest, suggested Hodor “is just asking someone to hold the door for him.”
If only he realized just how accurate his seemingly ridiculous prediction would turn out to be.
Game of Thrones fan predicts Hodor meaning
"Game of Thrones" fan Myrddin predicted the meaning of Hodor in 2008.
ASOIF/WESTEROS.ORG
Myrddin wrote: “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.”
Although Sunday’s episode didn’t pan out exactly like that, Myrddin—real name Stuart A. Etter, a budding author from Orlando, Florida—pretty much nailed how, mid-seizure after being warged into by Bran Stark, a young Wylis kept repeating “Hold the door” before his words slurred into just Hodor.
When Newsweek reached out to Etter, 42, for reaction to his eerily accurate theory (and some lottery numbers) Tuesday, he admitted seeing his innocuous posting come partially to life had been “surreal.”
“Before I actually saw the episode, someone messaged me a link to my 2008 post, which was odd,” he said. “I remembered writing it, but honestly I haven’t thought about it much since. So, when I watched the episode later that night, it did hit me right before it happened: ‘Hold the door.’”
“It’s even more surreal that someone on Reddit was able to find my eight-year-old post buried within an archived thread on a fansite. I’m just glad there are no videos of me doing something stupid floating around,” Etter joked.
Explaining how he came up with his “Hold the door” theory back in 2008, Etter said that, as an author himself, he saw “the words hidden within the name.”
“I’m a writer, so I like wordplay and puzzles,” he explained. “When the question was posed on the forum ‘What does Hodor mean?’ I saw the words hidden within the name.
“It seemed too silly and obvious to be actually true, of course. So yes, I puzzled out the meaning but dismissed it as a joke. Without the context of the scene, Hodor meaning ‘Hold the door’ is not much better than just ‘Hodor.
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