"Hold the Door" in the Book Series

Background

In this post I thought it would be fun to discuss how exactly the Hold the Door scene will go down in the books.

I am not going to lie, I HATE that time travel exists in ASOIAF. That said, I have accepted that it exists and will be a pretty big part of this plotline at least. If you are interested here is a recent post on time travel (and by recent, I mean 2 years ago): On the recent "Time Travel" Discussion

Book/Semi Canon Discussion that add Context

That said with the confirmation of it was one of the 3 WTF moments that GRRM told D&D, we have a bit of information that we can use to frame the book scene:

It wasn't easy for me. I didn't want to give away my books. It's not easy to talk about the end of my books. Every character has a different end. I told them who would be on the Iron Throne, and I told them some big twists like Hodor and 'hold the door,' and Stannis's decision to burn his daughter. -SSM, Screenrant Article: 10 October 2020

and:

QUESTION: The character of Hodor appeared at the very beginning of the book, but we learned the secret of his name many books later. Did you immediately hold his fate in your head and the phrase “Hold the door” or did it happen in the course of the story?

GEORGE MARTIN: Hodor! .. Yes, of course, it was a plan from the very beginning. As an inventive person, I always plan everything in advance. Unfortunately, the series got to the solution earlier, but I will come to this too. So Hodor!

and GRRM has basically been setting up Hodor (real name Walder) from the start:

Someone asked him about the show's Hodor name reveal**. He said that his name reveal in the books will differ in the context and how it happens. So while the name will still mean the same thing (Hold the Door), it will be very different from the show's reveal. He said he came up with the name idea in 1991** and seemed depressed that the show got to reveal it before he did. He said he had no one to blame but himself for his slow writing. -Joe Hill Interview

and:

The second: Hodor’s mind-bending origin story, which was revealed in Sunday’s hour. Martin has known the true meaning behind Hodor’s name since introducing the character in the first novel of the saga, A Game of Thrones. -EW Article 5/24/2016

but it is unconfirmed whether he had also hinted at it before:

I was thinking about your comment about wanting to be an elevator operator.  It’s clear to me now that “Hodor” is short for “Hold the door.”
Martin (laughing): You don’t know how close to the truth you are!

or not:

“Also the guy sitting next to me brought up the Hodor elevator story to him. He said he didn't remember it, but everyone at the table still had a good laugh about it.” -Balticon Report

The Scene

While the below quote is about The Forsaken, we must remember just how dark of a book TWoW is going to be (especially Bran's storyline):

Question about "The Forsaken"

GRRM: “Yeah, that is a dark chapter. But there are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I’m writing. It is called The Winds of Winter, and I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fills the world, so this is not gonna be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places…In any story, the classic structure is, ‘Things get worse before they get better,’ so things are getting worse for a lot of people.” -SSM, Spanish Interview: Guadalajara, 2016

and while I have theorized about it taking place elsewhere (Hold the Gorge/Hold the Fort), I am quite confident that the "door" Hodor will be holding is the back door to Cave of the Last Greenseer:

"Is this the only way in?" asked Meera.

"The back door is three leagues north, down a sinkhole."

That was all he had to say. Not even Hodor could climb down into a sinkhole with Bran heavy on his back, and Jojen could no more walk three leagues than run a thousand. -ADWD, Bran II

Since the cave is apparently warded and doesn't allow wights (or Coldhands) to pass:

"Inside the cave?" suggested Meera.

"The cave is warded. They cannot pass." The ranger used his sword to point. "You can see the entrance there. Halfway up, between the weirwoods, that cleft in the rock." -ADWD, Bran II

I am interested to see how the wights and/or Others gain access. We know from the show that Bran causes the ward to break, but GRRM could go plenty of different directions.

Holding the Door/Pass

As I have mentioned GRRM has stated that he will do it differently from the show:

it’s harder to explain in a show. I thought they executed it very well, but there are going to be differences in the book. They did it very physical—“hold the door” with Hodor’s strength. In the book, Hodor has stolen one of the old swords from the crypt. Bran has been warging into Hodor and practicing with his body, because Bran had been trained in swordplay. So telling Hodor to “hold the door” is more like “hold this pass”—defend it when enemies are coming—and Hodor is fighting and killing them. A little different, but same idea.

and as GRRM mentions Hodor has not only stolen a sword and Bran has been training as him, but Bran's thoughts seem to really lead into what Hodor will be doing:

One day I will be like him. The thought filled Bran with dread. Bad enough that he was broken, with his useless legs. Was he doomed to lose the rest too, to spend all of his years with a weirwood growing in him and through him? Lord Brynden drew his life from the tree, Leaf told them. He did not eat, he did not drink. He slept, he dreamed, he watched. I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered. I used to run and climb and fight. It seemed a thousand years ago.
What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins. He had thought the three-eyed crow would be a sorcerer, a wise old wizard who could fix his legs, but that was some stupid child's dream, he realized now. I am too old for such fancies, he told himself. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. That was as good as being a knight. Almost as good, anyway. -ADWD, Bran III

and:

Maybe they could help him walk again, even turn him into a knight. They turned the little crannogman into a knight, even if it was only for a day, he thought. A day would be enough. -ASOS, Bran II

and:

Bran stared resentfully at the sweating boys below. "If I still had my legs, I could beat them all." He remembered the last time he'd held a sword in his hand, when the king had come to Winterfell. It was only a wooden sword, yet he'd knocked Prince Tommen down half a hundred times. "Ser Rodrik should teach me to use a poleaxe. If I had a poleaxe with a big long haft, Hodor could be my legs. We could be a knight together."
"I think that … unlikely," Maester Luwin said. "Bran, when a man fights, his arms and legs and thoughts must be as one." -ACOK, Bran II

Time Travel/The Consequences

As I mentioned, I'm not the biggest fan, but Bran is going to mindrape Hodor which will cause some form of time ripple:

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: It’s an obscenity to go into somebody’s mind. So Bran may be responsible for Hodor’s simplicity, due to going into his mind so powerfully that it rippled back through time. The explanation of Bran’s powers, the whole question of time and causality—can we affect the past? Is time a river you can only sail one way or an ocean that can be affected wherever you drop into it? These are issues I want to explore in the book -Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon (James Hibberd)

If interested: Consequences to Bran Breaking the Skinchanger's Code

Hodor's Sword/Dark Sister

The last thing that I wanted to mention is that not only do we have Dark Sister potentially in the cave with Bran/Meera/Hodor (since Bloodraven took it with him to the Wall according to GRRM), but the sword Hodor has been using is from the Winterfell Crypts:

In the book, Hodor has stolen one of the old swords from the crypt.

Seeing that Dark Sister is valyrian (and likely but not completely confirmed to be dragonsteel) steel and Hodor has an ancient Stark sword (probably not the original Ice), is it just wights that enter through the cave's back door or Others too?

Final Thoughts

The goal here was to just discuss the scene not the outcome and while the show isn't canon I do think Hodor's death is still likely here unfortunately. That said the show also has Summer die as well which I think might have been more of a budget thing.

TLDR: Just a post on the "Hold the Door" scene as it takes place in the books to discuss. Hodor will likely hold the door/pass in the back of the Cave of the Last Greenseer (Three leagues north down a sinkhole) as Bran wargs his mind.