The eldest daughter of the Hatter family. She has two younger sisters, Lettie and Martha. Her own mother died when she
was only two-years-old, and her father married his youngest shop assistant Fanny. Since Fanny was always busy in the
shop, Sophie was the one who took to raising Lettie and Martha, by mixing and making them clothes, and stopping their fights.
She is the most studious of the three sisters and potentially the most intelligent, which is wasted on her belief that she
is bound to fail at everything she does.
When Sophie's father died Fanny decided to put all of the daughters into suitable places as according to fairytale beliefs.
As Sophie is the eldest and unlikely to come to much, Fanny sets her to making the hats in the hat shop. Sophie accepts
her doomed fate. At first she enjoys making the hats and begins talking to them from lack of anyone else to talk to. After
a while people begin coming to the hat shop as they come to believe the hats have special powers. Although she is unaware
of it Sophie has a special magical talent for talking life into things. Everything she says to an object comes true.
The Witch of the Waste hears about these hats and becomes very jealous of Sophie's magic talents. She turns
up at the shop one day with the intention of making fun of her. When she answers back to the Witch, furious, she turns
Sophie into an old woman. Although horrified at what has happened, she uses it as an excuse to leave the shop from fear of
giving Fanny a scare. Sophie decides to seek out the infamous Wizard Howl, who owns a scary moving castle that bobs about
the hills, to ask his help of removing the curse off her. As a young girl she was scared of Wizard Howl as rumours said
he ate the hearts of young girls.
When she enters the castle she makes a deal with Howl's fire demon Calcifer that if she breaks the contract between himself
and Howl, then he will life the spell on her. Pretending to be a cleaning lady, Sophie begins life in the castle, causing
a great annoyance to Howl, Calcifer, and Howl's appentice Michael. However, he doesn't throw her out and allows her to stay
providing she doesn't kill the spiders.
After a while Sophie begins to be pulled into the story behind Howl. She discovers that Howl didn't really eat the hearts
of young girls but rather courts them until they fall for him, then he jilts them. She is horrified to find out later that
he is even courting her sister Lettie, and tries to sabotage their meetings, although later on Sophie reflects on this and
realises she may have done it for other reasons. Sophie shows disgust also in Howl;s attempts to escape the job of looking
for Prince Justin, especially after Wizard Suliman had apparently been killed by the Witch of the Waste, prompting the Prince's
exile into the wastes of Ingary. Howl himself has once courted and been cursed by the Witch, as so attempts to avoid her at
all costs.
At first it appears that Howl is using Sophie to protect himself but after a while it becomes apparent that Howl was
just trying to take the curse off Sophie. His interest in Lettie, it turns out, was over Sophie (Who Howl only knows as "the
girl from May Day") and finding out who she was. Sophie falls in love with Howl but her stubborness to accept it
makes it very difficult for Howl to remove the curse because she believes that as long as she's an old woman she will not
fall in love with him. Lettie fears that Sophie will fall in love with him and sends the dog-man to try and come between them.
Sophie comes to believe that Howl is courting another woman called Lily Angorian. She becomes exteremly jealous and tries
to sabotage their relationship as she had done with his courting Lettie, by trying to keep Angorian away from the castle.
After a while, however, Sophie begins to feel bad about the way she is treating her and starts to accept that Howl couldn't
love her as an old woman. On Midsummer Day, the Witch sends a message to Michael and Sophie that she has capture Lily Angorian
and that Howl must come and get her. Terrified that Howl will have to face the Witch Sophie goes to the Waste to get her on
her own to save her.
Upon finding the Witch it is revealed that Angorian is the Witch's own fire demon and that the message had been a trap
to get Sophie to come to the Waste. It is not Angorian but Sophie that Howl is in love with. Finding out that Sophie has been
kidnapped by the Witch, Howl rushes out to the Waste to rescue her.
Howl Jenkins
Age: 27
Appearance: Very well presented. Apparently quite plain, but makes up for it in style. Green eyed, angular
faced, natural hair colour is brown but looks better with black hair. Quite tall.
Talents:
- Best wizard in Ingary.
- Created the moving castle (with the help of Calcifer)
- Has a very creative mind.
- Quite clever.
Personality: Very self involved. Vain, cowardly and never makes a promise. Only brave when he wants
to be and dislikes anything unpleasent (like getting angry). A slitherer-outer.
Other Alias: Howell Jenkins, Wizard Howl, Wizard Pendragon, Sorcerer Jenkin or simply Howl
Howl was born in Wales in our world. His birth name is Howell (Hywel) Jenkins. His known names all live in Wales.
Howl was born with remarkable magical talents, which he wrote a thesis on it when he was at university. His magic led him
to the other worlds, and Ingary, a country in an alternate world where magic is accepted in every day life. He became a student
of the powerful sorceress Mrs Penstemmon, who was to be her last. When he was twenty-two he started up being a sorcerer as
a profession in Porthaven. It was not long after this that Howl caught a falling star (i.e. a fire demon) and gave it his
heart so it could live because he felt sorry for it. Because of this Howl finds it difficult to fall in love. Howl has a reputation
every where to make women fall in love with him and then break their hearts when he can't be bothered anymore.
Together the pair make the Moving Castle.
Not long before the beginning of the story, Howl courted the Witch of the Waste, but ran away once he realised she was
as bad as the rumours were. They met when Howl tried to carry on Wizard Suliman's plan of making the wastes bloom with flowers
and the Witch objected. When Howl ran away the Witch put a curse on Howl so that he would have to return to her one day on
her terms.
In order to get out of the Witch's way, and everyone elses, Howl begins to give himself a bad reputation in order to
give his freedom. He sends Michael to Market Chipping to spread the rumour that Howl was an evil wizard after they begin to
panic upon the appearence of the moving castle. Howl is feared by everyone in Market Chipping, for he is said to steal the
hearts of young girls.
He takes many aliases: Wizard Howl in Market Chipping, Wizard Pendragon in the capital city of Kingsbury and the Sorcerer
Jenkin in Porthaven. He also uses several names when courting girls, so that when he runs away, they will not find him easily.
Howl first meets Sophie on May Day before she is bespelled by the Witch of the Waste, and he attempted to court
her. He sees that she is scared and tries to help her, but Sophie runs away. They meet again when he returns home a week afterward
to see Sophie, now an old woman, cooking on Calcifer. He senses a strong spell on her. Impressed that she managed to get Calcifer
to obey her orders, he allows her to stay and clean the castle providing that she doesn't kill any spiders or clean his bedroom
and the yard.
Not long afterward Howl meets Sophie's sister Lettie and begins courting her, only to have it confirmed from all the
family and Michael that Sophie is actually a young woman. He strings Lettie along in order to find out more about Sophie.
Howl begins to tease her about Lettie, appearing pleased with himself when she reacts jealously but avoids the issue if Sophie
considers Lettie's feelings. He even attempts to take the spell off Sophie, to no avail.
However, he begins to take more consideration of Sophie's feelings as well as still teasing her. He uses his nephew's
English teacher, Miss Angorian, to make Sophie so jealous that she will keep her out of the castle. Sophie is unaware that
Miss Angorian is actually the Witch's fire demon, and Howl was leaving the knob black down to make it seem that he is going
to court her, when he is actually just keeping an eye on her, as well as playing rugby and getting drunk.
Unknowingly he falls in love with Sophie. After turning the dog-man back into a human, he uses Sophie to get information
out of him as well as him to get information out of Sophie. On Midsummer Day, he invites all of Sophie's family around to
keep her in the castle so the Witch can't get her. However, she goes to the wastes to save Miss Angorian who she thinks Howl
is in love with.
When Howl finds out he appears to have an epiphany: he wants to save Sophie from the Witch but it might cost him his
life. If he doesn't go to the wastes the curse doesn't come true but he will never see Sophie again, so he will never feel
true love. If he does go he is risking everything to save the woman he loves. Howl, deciding he'd rather die than be without
Sophie, goes to the waste and finds the courage to stand up to the wastes. However his actions cause the curse to come true
as he has to be honest about what he had been doing (e.g. moving the castle, leaving the knob black down, etc.) which allows
Miss Angorian to take Howl's heart. With Sophie's help he is able to defeat her, and finally becomes a force for good.
