We stand on the shoulders of giants.

We often talk about translators as lone wolves, but, in reality, our job is a team effort. Usually, one professional translates the document, another one reviews it, and a third one proofreads it to find any remaining mistakes all while a project manager watches the whole process. In bigger projects, the text can be divided up among several translators that must coordinate in order to produce a series of accurate and coherent translations.

And that’s no easy task. Each translator has his or her own system and will propose different solutions to the same linguistic problems. If we are working on a furniture catalogue, one may use the word “couch” for what another might call “sofa”. But, ok, that’s easy to fix. However, what happens when there are previous translations of the same document?

That is when translation becomes a social phenomenon, where each professional has the ability to affect the work of the rest. That’s how the network that holds up the industry is created. That’s how translation writes its own history.

And that’s also where the problems start.

The Hodor Dilemma

(Warning! Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season six)

Picture Hodor, the simpleton giant that carries Bran Stark on his back for the majority of the TV show Game of Thrones. He only says one word. And that word is… Hodor, of course! He stands out from the rest of the cast despite not being as verbally eloquent. Or maybe because of it.

But why does Hodor say Hodor? Nobody knew until season 6, which was released in 2016. I repeat, 2016. That’s 25 years after the first book was published and the first time Hodor appeared. During that time, nobody knew, besides the author, why Hodor said Hodor. The translators tasked with translating the books into other languages kept the name as is, just as they kept Bran, Tyrion and Arya the same. There was no reason not to do it!

But in that season, we finally discover the reason behind his behavior and where the character’s name comes from. You see, it’s more than just a name. Hodor is a contraction of “Hold the door,” the last order that Bran gave to Hodor. After a main dish of astral travel with a side of time hopping, the Hodor of the future passed the name on to the Hodor of the past. It would have been nice if he had passed it on to the translators too!

Because, you know, that’s an issue. You can’t suddenly change his name to something like “Suerta” (“Sujeta la Puerta”) in the Spanish version. And you can’t just skip that part of the translation altogether. It’s important for the plot! In the end, the translators in Spain decided to go with “Aguanta el portón” and let the voice actor work his magic and transform that into Hodor.

Keeping all these issues in mind, it’s hard to judge the final result. But if you want to, check out the episode. Or if you want to see how this problem was solved in other languages click HERE.

That’s all for today! We’ll be back soon with more on this topic. If you found today’s article interesting, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to find out when future articles will come out. Hasta pronto!