unrecorded – 300 AC, beyond the Wall, holding a door against the dead
A stableboy of enormous size and a single word, whose given name only one old woman at Winterfell still remembered, and who spent his last strength holding a door shut so that four other people could live.
The Gentle Giant of Winterfell
A stableboy at Winterfell of unusual size and strength and a speech so limited he was known to say only his own name — in fear, in greeting, in every circumstance the text records — Hodor was gentle enough that the Stark children trusted him without a second thought. Old Nan, alone among the household, remembered that his given name had actually been Walder, a detail she found privately amusing and that Winterfell's smallfolk had long since forgotten in favor of the only word he ever used for himself.
Beyond the Wall
After Winterfell fell, Hodor carried Bran Stark north beyond the Wall in a specially built basket, all the way to the cave of the last greenseer, and became increasingly bound up in Bran's growing and still only half-controlled warging ability along the way. When wights attacked the cave in 300 AC, Hodor held a door shut against them with his own body while Meera Reed and the warged, fleeing Bran escaped through another passage, repeating his own name without pause until the chronicle's account of him ends.
Key events
unrecordedServes as a stableboy at Winterfell; Old Nan alone recalls his true name, Walder.
299 ACCarries Bran Stark north beyond the Wall.
300 ACDies holding a door shut against wights so Bran and Meera Reed can escape.
The arc of Hodor
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
The published books establish only that Hodor's true name was Walder and that he died holding a door under attack; any causal link between that moment and the origin of his usual name is not part of the currently published text.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
Legacy
Hodor's death is the clearest instance in the published books of the price Bran's gift can extract from the people around him, a debt the text raises and, as of A Dance with Dragons, has not yet finished totaling.
SourcesAGOTASOSADWD
Who is Hodor?
A stableboy of enormous size and a single word, whose given name only one old woman at Winterfell still remembered, and who spent his last strength holding a door shut so that four other people could live.
Is Hodor from the books or the show?
Book canon. This profile follows George R. R. Martin’s novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.