Before you read any further, be warned that this post is dark and full of Game of Thrones spoilers. And when I say dark, I mean it, because today we’re talking Hodor and the infamous line, “hold the door.” Read on at your own risk!
By now, we’ve all had time to properly grieve the loss of one of the kindest, gentlest characters in all of Westeros: Hodor. Felled by a incoming horde of wights, Hodor died protecting those he cared for most. His death was noble, but completely tragic. But more than losing another good character, the death brought on another big blow to the feels by showing us what made Hodor Hodor. But let’s not focus on pointing fingers here for who was meddling throughout time, causing innocent people to be irreparably damaged forever (*cough* Bran *cough*).Hodor’s death was tough to process, but once those initial wounds began to heal, we all started wondering one thing: how did Game of Thrones fans watching the show in languages other than English experience the “creation” of Hodor? How did other languages manage to show Hodor become Hodor after a violent seizure while hearing the phrase “hold the door” shouted through the fabric of time? After all, a simple translation job wasn’t required. No, this was a bit of a bigger job for translators because non-English speaking Thrones fans needed to hear something that instructed Hodor to hold the door while also sounding somewhat close to Hodor. A pretty tricky job for Game of Thrones translators! Thanks to Imgur user HooptyDooDooMeister, we’ve got a glimpse into the ways “hold the door” was translated into twenty-one different languages to make the infamous tragedy work.
You can check out the gallery below to see how Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, and more languages managed to work their translation magic to ensure that the hearts of Thrones fans across the globe were all utterly and completely broken. It’s fascinating to see how some languages were close enough to English to keep the line as “hold the door,” and some like Mandarin and Finnish had to get a bit creative with their translations, saying things like, “don’t let them in” or “keep the door closed.” But regardless of the language you’re watching the show in, we’ll all miss Hodor dearly.
Which translation do you find the most interesting? Tell us what you think in the comments!
Featured Image: HBO
Images: HBO, HooptyDooDooMeister/Imgur