Pag. 1 a 9
http://www.independent.co.uk/
How Game of Thrones got
around the Hodor 'hold the
door' translation issue in 21
languages
'Pas au-dehors!'
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Christopher Hooton
@christophhooton
Wednesday 10 August 2016
1 comment
81
The people in charge of subtitles/dubbing on Game of Thrones’ international
version must have had the “well, sh*t” moment of the century when they first got
to see season 6 episode ‘The Door’.
It, of course, saw (spoiler alert, if you’re seriously that far behind) Hodor’s name
revealed to be a contraction of the English phrase “hold the door”, presenting a
problem for foreign broadcasters.
This week, Entertainment Weekly rounded up a series of stills collated
by Imgur user HoopyDooDooMeister (nice) showing the solutions to the problem.
They range from the ingenious - French: “Pas au-dehors!” (“Not outside!”) and
Italian: “Blocca l’orda!” (“Block the horde!”) - to the pretty clunky - Polish:
“Zahamuj dwych, ill możesz!” (“Hold the dead as long as you can!”).
Pag. 2 a 9
The Imgur post proved very popular, but the OP admitted to having sourced a lot
of the translations from Open Subtitles. If you happened to see the episode in a
foreign language country, do please let us know how it was handled in the official
broadcast below.
COMMENTS
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1 Comment
70 days ago
jakkolwiek
Ok, but in Polish there is no such word like "dwych". It should be more like "zahamuj
martwych ile możesz" ("hold the dead as long as you can"). Then, if you say it fast "t"
changes into "d".
Like:
Zahamuj martwych, na ile możesz!
Zahamuj dwych, ile możesz!
Hamujd, ile ożesz! (it's funny cause it means "to plough" from the word "orać")
Hamildeorzesz! Hamildeorzesz!
Hodorze...
But it sounds ridiculously anyway.
"Hold the door" translates exactly on "Trzymaj drzwi" - so there is no way to do it right.
Pag. 3 a 9
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Game of Thrones: Hodor name
reveal made no sense to
viewers watching it dubbed in
Spanish
Perdido en la traducción
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Christopher Hooton
@christophhooton
Tuesday 24 May 2016
5 comments
1K
Translators on both Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fireweren’t to know
that the name Hodor was an abbreviation of the phrase ‘hold the door’, which
we discovered in Sunday night’s episode, so had been ploughing on with it
verbatim.
As such, it made anyone watching episode 5 dubbed in another language this week
a little confused.
According to one Redditor, this was the dialogue in the climactic scene, which
saw Hodor shouting the phrase repeatedly:
"Sostén la puerta!"
"Sost la uerta!"
"Sos la rta!"
"Solata!"
"Hodor!"
Pag. 4 a 9
In Turkish, it faired a little better however (at least in subtitle):
"Orada dur! (Stay there)"
"Orda dur!"
"Ordur!"
"Hodor!"
Fortunately, most non-English speakers watch with subtitles rather than
overdubbing, so the contraction of ‘hold the door’ to Hodor was still easy to
understand.
It remains to be seen how the moment will be handled in translations of the books
though, which don’t have the luxury of an English language version running
parallel.
Fans were inconsolable over the death of Hodor on Sunday night. Actor Kristian
Nairn has teased that his character might still return, though this could be bad
news.
https://www.quora.com/
How will dubbing studios produce the Hodor scene of Game
of Thrones S06E05 (Hold the door)?
How will they be able to highlight this scene: Hold the door.. Hol th door... Hol door. Hodor !!
In french for example it seems weird:
"Tiens la porte" is the translation of "Hold the door" and can't see how they can converge to
Hodor.
Mandy Moose.
Written 29 May
Would it be necessary? In the scene, you highlight
Imagine: Hold the Door, Hold the Door, Hold the Door,…… [audio]
[subtitles] translation of ‘hold the door’ into another language
If the subtitles are removed after the viewer has established the meaning of ‘hold the door’ with
respect to their own language, and therefore understands the repeated, spoken, unfamiliar
words, then I don’t see why it would be a problem to retain the contraction that ends with
Hodor.
Pag. 5 a 9
…Hold the Door, Hold…Door, Ho….. Door, HoDor…[audio]
[subtitles removed]
I think it would be fine
As a counterpoint, we all understand what ‘valar morghulis’ means. If there was a character
called Valaris, and the back story was that the name was a contraction of valar morghulis,
would it need translating?
Rakesh Mathur
Written 29 May
Maybe in Hindi, they would have already been giving some other sound (and name)to
Hodor..like Barho.
And this scene would be dubbed as Band Rakho.. Barkho....Barho.Barho
EDIT
Band Rakho meaning Keep it closed in Hindi.
http://www.theverge.com/
How Game of Thrones' Hodor
wordplay kind of, sort of
works in other languages
by Kaitlyn Tiffany Aug 8, 2016, 3:20p
Game of Thrones viewers had a lot of questions after the fifth episode of season six, "The
Door," aired this past May. My main question was "Why does this show need time travel in
addition to zombies, wolf people, ice monsters, dragons, shadow demons, and shape
shifters?" But another pressing question, for those less bratty than I, was how the show
managed to translate the wordplay of the name "Hodor" being a contraction of "HOLD THE
DOOR."
Cases like these are major sticking points in any translation — just ask the folks who
translate niche manga pro bono! — and it does seem pretty far-fetched to expect that
Pag. 6 a 9
every language the show gets broadcast in would have a phrase that sounded enough like
"Hodor" and had the rough meaning of "hold the door."
Turns out, someone went through the trouble of rounding up a bunch of the translations
and sharing them in an Imgur gallery. I would like to bestow upon theGame of
Thrones translators an unofficial Hodor Award for Translating, which honors translators
who, like the award's namesake, sacrifice their bodies and minds to some lofty goal and /
or a whiny teenage boy.
21 Languages: Game of Thrones S06E05 "The Door" (SPOILERS)
As you can see, the most hilarious script contortion was made by the folks who translated
"The Door" into Italian. To get to "Hodor," they had Meera Reed shout "blocca l'orda!
Orda!" which translates to "block the horde! the horde!" and is coincidentally what I
generally shout when bodying innocent civilians out of my way on the F train platform
http://www.pajiba.com/
Depending On Where You Live, This Week's Otherwise
Devastating 'Game of Thrones' May Have Been
Underwhelming
By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | May 24, 2016 | Comments (36)
If you haven’t seen this week’s Game of Thrones, this is your warning to head back now. Although,
if you haven’t seen it and the show is a thing you care about, I don’t know what you’re doing on the
internet in general. THIS WHOLE PLACE IS DARK AND FULL OF SPOILERS!
Over six seasons, Game of Thrones has reached world-dominating levels of ubiquity. The
show is broadcast in 170 countries, and the books— presumably numbers for the show are
similar— have been translated into more than 45 languages. And until this weekend’s
devastating portmanteau-based backstory reveal, that process of translating this show isn’t
something most of us probably gave too much thought to. But then one Redditor blew our
minds with the supposition that a Spanish-language broadcast might not have had the
same impact as the original English.
“Sostén la puerta”
“Sost la uerta”
“Sos la rta”
“Solata”
“Hodor”
…”¿Qué?”
Pag. 7 a 9
While that literal translation clearly doesn’t work, fans began to chime in with the ways the
scene was translated in their home languages. Some were decidedly more clever than
others. (All are via Reddit.)
Turkish
Orada dur! (Stay there)
Orda dur!
Ordur!
Hodor!
(This user also says the episode’s title was “The Dur.”)
Swedish
“Håll dörren”
“Håll dörr”
“Hådörr”
“Hodor”
Finnish
Pidä ovi suljettuna
Pid ov suljet
Pidovsul
Piovsu
Hodor
Dutch
“Houd de deur [dicht]” (it’s a bit of a uncommon way of saying it in dutch but it works).
“Houd deur”
“Houdeur”
“Hodor”
Danish
Hold Døren!
Holdøren
Holdør
Hodor
Norwegian
Hold døren!
Hold dør’n!
Holdør!
Hodor!
Pag. 8 a 9
German
“Halt das Tor”
“Haldator”
“Holdotor”
“Hodor”
Chinese
别让它们进来! [Bie rang ta men jin lai! | Don’t let them come in]
别让进来! [Bie rang jin lai! | Don’t let in!]
别让进!
别让进! [Bie rang jing! | Don’t let in]
何.多! [He duo! | Hodor]
French may be the most clever
“Ne les laisse pas aller au-dehors” which translates to “don’t let them come outside”.
Then “pas au-dehors”
“Au-dehors”
“Hodor
And my personal favorite:
Czech
Drž ty dveře!
Drž dveře!
Drž dveře!
Hodor!
A bunch of Czech Redditors are really mad at the lack of effort/possibilities there. I guess
that’s what happens when a character is named a decade ago, without translators knowing
the significance.
Pag. 9 a 9
http://io9.gizmodo.com/
The Many Ways Game of
Thrones Tried to Make Hodor's
Name Work Around the World
Katharine Trendacosta
8/08/16 12:00pm
Filed to: GAME OF THRONES
This is a fairly constant problem in translating: What do you do when one of your biggest
plot points depends on wordplay? In Game of Thrones’ case, it came up in one of the
biggest moments from last season, forcing many international versions of the show to find
some very creative solutions.
Hodor’s death, and the reveal that “Hodor” was a contraction of “Hold the door” put many
countries in a bind. Most international versions of the show have kept the character’s name
“Hodor” because there was no reason to suspect it needed to be otherwise. At the same
time, in some of these countries the phrase “Hold the door” sounds phonetically nothing
like “Hodor,” meaning they had to scramble to find other phrases for “Hodor” to be based
on.
On imgur, HooptyDooDooMeister took the time to gather up 21 examples of the Hodoring.
Some—unsurprisingly, the ones that sound the most like English—are pretty
straightforward. Others, like Japanese and Lithuanian, don’t work nearly as well.