Howl Jenkins Pendragon
Howl Jenkins Pendragon is a male character who features in Howl's Moving Castle.
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Biography
Howl Jenkins Pendragon (Japanese: ハウル・ジェンキンス・ペンドラゴン, Hepburn: Hauru Jenkinsu Pendoragon) was born to an ordinary family in modern-day Wales. However, he himself was anything but ordinary. Gifted with a natural talent for magic, he began studying it. Even in college, he wrote his thesis on magical spells and charms, and joined a group of other gifted magicians on Earth.
In Wales, Howl had a habit of going out with girls and then jilting them. In an attempt to hide from three angry rugby players whose sister he had jilted, he cast a spell that opened a portal to another land, Ingary, where he moved almost permanently. Still young, he took up tutelage under Mrs. Pentstemmon with him being her last and best pupil. Such was his skill with magic that he was quite powerful and his mentor hoped that one day he would replace her. His natural gift for magic showed, and he was quite powerful. He was in the same league as the Witch of the Waste. Howl is a wizard in the land of Ingary and he has several names; he was known as Wizard Howl in Market Chipping.
On one night at the Porthaven Marshes, Howl managed to catch a falling star that was a fire demon named Calcifer where he made a contract with him. Howl felt sorry for the creature and decided to forge a contract with the demon. In exchange for his heart, the creature bond itself with the magician allowing Calcifer to continue living. The act also led to Howl being furthered empowered with magic making him much stronger but at the cost of losing his heart. Afterwards, Howl ended his apprenticeship under Mrs. Pentstemmon and decided to live a life of a hermit.
It is during one of his outings to find a young woman that he first meets Sophie. Howl first meets Sophie on May Day in Market Chipping before the Witch of The Waste casts an aging spell on her. Days later he returns to the Castle and is surprised to find an old woman cooking bacon on Calcifer. Despite Michael and Calcifer's complaints, he allows Sophie to clean the castle, though he stops her from cleaning his room. Although he has been gathering clues about Suliman's disappearance, Howl is concerned the King wants him to find Prince Justin. He gets Sophie to pretend to be his mother and say bad things about him to the king, but the king is more impressed than annoyed, and hires him as Royal Wizard anyway. The very same day, Mrs Pentstemmon is killed by the Witch of the Waste. Howl is grieved and vows to attend Mrs Pentstemmon's funeral no matter what.
Howl battles with the Witch of the Waste after attending Mrs Penstemmon's funeral. Now that the Witch knows he lives in Porthaven, he decides to move the castle to escape. Taking Michael and Sophie's wishes into consideration, he takes the hat shop in Market Chipping so Michael stays close to Martha (his love interest), and orders Calcifer to find a nice house with lots of flowers for Sophie. Howl helps in the shop and discovers that a dog that stowed away with them is secretly a bespelled human. When Sophie admits that she knew about it he is furious with her. He restores the bespelled human to his human form and suspects he is made of Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin's body parts. Howl is stunned and terrified at this realization; he was counting on Wizard Suliman being alive.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Howl Jenkins Pendragon was a young, handsome man with bright blue eyes and hair that reaches below his chin. He was known by a number of aliases where by birth he was referred to as Howell Jenkins. He also went by the name of Wizard Jenkin in Porthaven and preferred Howl Pendragon in Kingsbury.
After his hair was dyed black, Howl was deeply upset and came to believe that he was now ugly despite the small cosmetic change. He went into a depressive state that magically affected his surroundings such as turning his body into a green sticky liquid and summoning spirits of darkness.
He was shown to be an endearing, charming man who was intelligent, considerate, if somewhat self-appreciative, dishonest, and careless at times.
He uses charms and make up to make himself more attractive, as well as having a naturally engaging personality. Michael and Calcifer insist that the day Howl forgets to spend less than an hour in the bathroom is the day he is truly in love, a prediction which later turns out to be true. Howl wears flamboyant and fancy suits, claiming to Michael that "No one's going to employ a wizard if he looks like he can't make money at the trade" (although Sophie voices suspicions that really, he just likes clothes). The suit he wears most often is silver and blue though he later changes to his more favoured grey and scarlet one, later disguised as a black suit, when Howl goes into mourning for his tutor, Mrs Pentstemmon. Originally, it was just flashy, until Sophie accidentally darned magic into the seams by talking life into it, saying "[the suit is] built to pull in the girls."
Powers and abilities
Howl is a very talented wizard, and is also quite good at slithering out of things he does not wish to do - a talent he cultivated through his sister's unwitting aid - and can change into different animals (he's seen as a cat, a dog and an unidentified monster). In the movie, he is able to transform in to a large beast with black feathers and seemly various stages of transformation. He uses this power to fly to the battlefield and fight as well as to escape from enemies.
He was able to transform in to a large beast with black feathers and seemly various stages of transformation. This power allowed him to fly to the battlefield and fight as well as to escape from enemies. Repeated use of his transformation ran the risk of permanently leaving him in his monstrous bird-like state.
His Moving Castle was empowered by the flames of the fire demon Calcifer who was able to keep it moving and active so long as he remained in its hearth.
Notes
- Howl Jenkins Pendragon was created by Diana Wynne Jones and featured in the setting of the Howl Series universe.
In other media
Films
Appearances
- Howl's Castle:
External Links
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