HODER

Real Name: Hoder

Occupation: God of night, snow and winter

Legal Status: Citizen of Asgard

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Hoder except as a mythological deity.

Other Aliases: Hod, Hodur (alternate spellings), Hal Dawes, “The Blind God,”

Place of Birth: Asgard

Place of Death: New York City

Marital Status: Single

Known Relatives: Odin (father, deceased), Frigga (mother), Balder, Hermod (brothers), Nanna, Solveig (sisters-in-law, deceased), Thor, Bragi, Tyr, Vidar, Heimdall, Vali (half-brothers), Loki (foster-brother), Ve (uncle, alias Lodur), Vili (uncle, alias Hoenir), Bor (grandfather, alias Borri), Bestla (grandmother), Buri (great-grandfather, alias Tiwaz)

Group Affiliation: Gods of Asgard 

Base of Operations: Asgard

First Appearance: Thor I#274

History: Hoder is the son of Odin, Ruler of the Asgardians, an extra-dimensional race of beings once worshipped as gods by the Vikings and Germans, and Frigga, goddess of marriage. According to the sentient Severed Eye of Odin, the Asgardian gods have been trapped in cycles of death and rebirth. In an earlier Asgard, Hoder had been manipulated by Loki into slaying his brother, Balder, whose death would set into motion the events of Ragnarok, or “Twilight of the Gods.” Both Hoder and Balder reportedly sought the hand of Nanna in marriage, but she married Balder instead. Loki might have used this incident to incite Hoder in firing a sprig of mistletoe in the shape of an arrow at his brother. Realizing he had been duped, Hoder helped Heimdall in capturing Loki as he tried to escape Asgard, but was slain himself by Vali, yet another son of Odin to avenge Balder. Both Vali and Vidar, another son of Odin, had succeeded in surviving Ragnarok with a small gathering of Asgardians and emerged from a cave afterward. In the plain of Idavoll, Vidar and his brethren discovered Odin’s old spear, Gungnir, and were able to use it to restore the Odin to life. Odin then restored all the other Asgardians slain by Ragnarok back to life, effectively undoing all the events of Ragnarok. It is unsure just how many of the claims of the Severed Eye of Odin are accurate.

Despite being born blind, Hoder was prone to periodic prophetic visions and often explained the meanings behind the dreams of others. He often wandered Asgard and once turned up near the borders of Niffleheim where Odin found him following prophecies from the spirit of Volla. Loki had once again rediscovered the prophecies tying Balder’s death to the coming of Ragnarok and also of his weakness to mistletoe. Seeking to bring about Ragnarok, Loki once more tricked Hoder into firing an arrow tipped in mistletoe wood at Balder with a bow that never missed its mark. Balder was critically wounded, but this time Odin’s power prevented his son from actually dying and instead kept him in a state of resembling suspended animation. Hoder stood in Asgard's defense with Sigyn guiding his aim as Hela’s armies advanced to claim Balder’s soul, and Sigyn promised to help guide him in battle. Ultimately, Thor and Red Norvell, a mortal imbued with a portion of Thor’s might, eventually forced Hela from Asgard and Balder was restored wholly to life.

Despite his blindness, Hoder has frequently served his fellow Asgardians in war against common enemies. He donated his life energies to Odin to combat the Celestials, and when those energies were lost, Hoder was revived after Thor collected energies from the sky-fathers of the other pantheons of earth as per a pact with Odin. He accompanied Thor and Vidar to Jotunheim to confront the giants that killed Solveig, Vidar’s wife, using Vidar’s unbreakable staff to trap them in their castle so that Thor and Vidar could deal with them in combat. He had a prophecy that Vidar would be required to save Asgard from Ymir and an army of Storm-Giants and defended Asgard from the undead armies of Seth, the Egyptian god of the dead. When Seth returned and attempted to force Ragnarok to occur by tampering with Yggdrasil, Odin cast the Asgardians into mortal guises with fabricated memories and histories in order to trick Yggdrasil into thinking that Ragnarok had already occurred again. Hoder became a mortal air-conditioner repairman named Hal Dawes, but he ended up murdered by Men in Black sent by Seth to destroy the Asgardian Gods in their mortal identities.

About a year later, Odin lost his life against Surtur and Thor replaced him as king of Asgard. Loki set about a revised Ragnarok and was beheaded by Thor as he set out to face the truth of Asgard’s endless cycles of rebirth from the mysterious beings known as Those Who Sit Above In Shadow. In order to put an end to the recurring Ragnaroks, Thor severed the thread of destiny controlling Asgard’s existence, effectively destroying it as a result. However, recent events suggest that the Asgardian Gods still exist somewhere in the universe. It remains to be seen if Hoder has been restored as well.  

Height: 5' 10"

Weight: 390 lbs.

Eyes: White

Hair: White

Strength Level: Hoder possesses superhuman strength and can lift (press) about 20 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Hoder possesses the conventional attributes of the Asgardian gods. Like all Asgardians, he has aged at an extremely slow rate since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant power, such as Odin or Njord or for a number of Asgardian gods of equal power working together to revive him. Hoder also possesses superhuman strength and his Asgardian metabolism provides him with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Asgardian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Asgardians' superhuman strength and weight.)

Hoder also has prophetic skills resembling precognition or clairvoyance of events beyond his other senses. His psychic abilities give him visions of events that are far distant or that lie in possible futures. As a god, he might be able to more easily discern events from probable futures than mortal psychics. He can perceive past the veil of dreams and perceive events around him by become aware of those events precognitively than visually.

Limitations: Hoder is blind, but his visions more than make up for it.

Comments: Thanks to Michael Hoskins (Prime Eternal of the Marvel Appendix) for his help in detailing Hodur’s Marvel Universe appearances.

Clarifications: Hoder is not to be confused with:

Last updated: 02/18/07

 

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