Howl Jenkins Pendragon

Howl Pendragon is a powerful wizard living in the land of Ingary. Originally Howell Jenkins of Wales, he was part of a loose fraternity of magicians on Earth. He made his way through a magical portal to Ingary, where he become known and respected as one of the most powerful wizards there was. He owns a moving castle, and spreads rumors about himself to retain his privacy, opting to be alone and hiding from all conflict.

Before Sophie
Howell Jenkins 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 magic, and joined a group of other gifted magicians on Earth. Somehow, he managed to create or find a portal to Ingary, where he moved mostly permanently.

Still young, he took up tutelage under Mrs. Pentstemmon. He became her last pupil, and one of her favorites. His natural gift for magic showed, and he was quite powerful. However, one night on the Porthaven Marshes, he caught a Falling Star named Calcifer and made a contract with him. He gave his heart to the creature, binding them together, and allowing Calcifer to live, while boosting his own magical power.

However, after doing so, Howl quit his apprenticeship and became a hermit. He dyed his hair and spent all his money on make-up and clothing, and spent his days wooing young ladies until they fell in love with him, then dismissing them.

For some time, he does work for the King's army, but avoids contact with them as much as possible. It is during one of his outings to find a young woman that he first meets Sophie.

Castle in the Air
Howl has married Sophie and she is pregnant with their first child, Morgan. While Howl is casting a locator spell he discovers that a djinn intends to steal the castle from them. He sent Michael and his new apprentice away. He attempts to send Sophie to Wales to stay with his sister Meghan Jenkins but Sophie refuses to leave him, asking him to turn her into something so the djinns just won't notice her. When the djinns appear, Howl turns her into a cat in the hope the djinns will think she's just a house cat and leave her be. However, the djinns notice Sophie and toss her out of the castle. Unable to help her, Howl is turned into a Genie and Calcifer into a magic carpet. Howl is cursed so that if he encounters Sophie she will not know it is him and he won't be able to tell her.

Both Howl and Calcifer find themselves in the hands of Abdullah, a carpet merchant, who has also lost his true love to the djinns. Howl promises to grant a wish each day to Abdullah, although Howl uses his powers to cause as much trouble for Abdullah as possible. He later encounters the cat Sophie, who is named Midnight by Abdullah's companion soldier, and she has given birth to Morgan who is a kitten. Although Midnight is unaware of the Genie, he notices her and occasionally suggests he knows Sophie and Morgan. When Morgan is turned back into a baby, the Genie takes him to the moving castle so he can keep an eye on him. Once the djinns are defeated, the Genie is turned back into Howl and he is reunited with Sophie, Morgan and Calcifer. In Castle in the Air, he had two apprentices: Michael Fisher and another unnamed apprentice.

House of Many Ways
In House of Many Ways, Howl is at first mentioned as one of two of the Royal Magician. His wife, Sophie comes to High Norland to help find the missing gold for the King and Princess HIlda. Howl soon comes along, in the form of an adorable child called "Twinkle". In the form of Twinkle, Howl looks like a young boy with blond curly hair, great big eyes, and lisp. Even though he knew that it was not heard of another Royal Magician helping another nation, he came to help Sophie, who isn't amused at this idea. Twinkle also brought along Morgan, Sophie and Howl's son, and Calcifer, the fire demon.

During one of Charmain's, the main character of the book, visits, Twinkle gets on top of the roof to tell her something important. It turns out that he needed some help with some documents, the same ones that Charmain was helping the King with. He told Charmain that the ones that will help have a spell on them to help, and to write it for him and Sophie. Agreeing, Charmain helps the two out. It is then shown that Prince Ludovic, the only one who can claim the throne, had 9 cousins that had died rather painfully.

At the ending of the book, it turns out that Prince Ludovic was the one who was stealing much of the gold from the Royal Treasury for his own castle, but it also turned out that Prince Ludovic is a thing called a Lubbockin, a human/Lubbock being. Its father, a Lubbock, wanted to take over High Norland, and use Prince Ludovic as a puppet king. Thinking that it was Twilight was important to Sophie, not knowing that it was in fact Howl, he tried to harm Twinkle. Both Sophie and Charmain chase after two other Lubbockin, leaving the King, Princess Hilda, Prince Ludovic, Sim, and Morgan. When they return, Prince Ludovic had captured Morgan, and him and a colorless man, whose name is unknown, get away, with Twinkle in tow. When the main group catch up, they find the four in the Royal Palor, and Prince Ludovic strangling Morgan. Howl stops this, by both switching his place with the 3 year old, and returning back to his normal form. Himself and Calcifer transform the two into rabbits, since one of them had gotten his foot smashed by the hidden gold, and was hoping around, getting Calcifer to think about rabbits. In the end, Howl explains what happened to the gold, and where the Elfgift was. The ending shows Howl, Sophie, Morgan, and Calcifer leaving, with Morgan called out to Twinkle.

Appearance and Personality
In the movie adaption, Howl is a blonde haired man who appears to be of a flashy type. Later on in the movie, Sophie Hatter cleans his bathroom and switches some hair potions, leaving Howl's formerly blonde hair a bluish-black. Howl is not very happy with this, and reacts with green slime in a particularily humorous scene. In the book, Michael tells Sophie that the day he beliveves Howl is truly in love, is the day that he doesn't get ready for hours in the bathroom, putting spells and potions on his face. When Sophie is in danger, Howl appears to save her, and his appearance is toned down. Miyazaki had always drawn Howl with adorned with many jewels and fancy clothing, but when shows up to save Sophie, he is wearng no jewels, and only a white shirt and black pants. He tries everything to get girls to fall in love with him, and then dumps them. He is snobby and easily gets in a terrible mood. He dislikes it when people move things on him, and the only reason why he allowed Sophie to stay at first is because she was able to get Calcifer to do what she wanted him to do. Howl is a bit of a drama queen, and is known for his almost child-like attitude.

Howl's Moving Castle (book)
Howl is a wizard in the land of Ingary and he has several names, he is known as Wizard Howl in Market Chipping, "Wizard Pendragon" in the capital Kingsbury, and "Jenkin the Sorcerer" in lower-class Porthaven. He lives in a moving castle powered by a fire demon named Calcifer. He has an pupil named Michael Fisher.

Howl first meets his love Sophie Hatter on May Day before the Witch of the Waste casts an aging spell on her. He takes her with him to escape the demons that are following him. Days later he gets back to the Castle and is surprised to find an old lady cooking on Calcifer. Despite Michael and Calcifer's complaints he lets Sophie clean the castle. Although he has been gathering clues about Suliman's missing Howl is concerned the King wants him to find Prince Justin. He gets Sophie to pretend to be his mother but the king is more impressed than put off and hires him as the Royal Wizard.

Howl battles with the Witch of the Waste after 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 and orders Calcifer to find a nice house with lots of flowers for Sophie. Howl helps in the shop and discovers the dog is a bespelled human. He restores him to his human form and suspects he is made of Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin's body parts. He uses Sophie to get information out of him. As the curse is about to be fulfilled, Howl gets drunk, but he also arranges for Sophie's family to visit. When Sophie falls in the Witch's trap, he raises a wind to bring her back and explains his motives. His honesty seals his fate and the Witch's fire demon, in the shape of Howl's nephew's English teacher, gets hold of Calcifer and squeezes the heart Howl had given Calcifer to keep him alive. Howl collapses but Sophie saves him by giving him his heart back. By breaking Howl's and Calcifer's contract, Sophie returns to her true age. Howl gets rid of the fire demon, restores Suliman and Prince Justin to their true forms and asks Sophie to marry him.