Hywyl's Roaming Castle

This article is a proposal It has not been ratified and therefore the information on this page is not protected by QSS. You are welcome to correct errors and/or express your opinion at the Discussion Page.

Hywyl's Roaming Castle is a book written by author Dian Wynne. It follows the story of Seren, a girl who is the eldest (and thus most unlucky) of three, who becomes cursed by the evil Witch of Blight into the body of an elderly woman. She then sets out to "find her fortune." She ends up in the roaming castle of the "evil" wizard Hywyl. The castle is merely a fascade, and is moved by the fire demon Ferin, who, through a contract that he himself may not reveal (due to a sub-clause) why he is like Hywyl's servant. Another resident of the castle is Meical, supposed apprentice to Hywyl (Hywyl didn't even really take notice of Meical until roughly three months after Meical had started sleeping on his doorstep).

Through most of the novel, Seren is Hywyl's "cleaning lady," and slowly comes to learn more and more about Hywyl and the others. At the climax of the story, she cures herself and Hywyl of their respective curses and contracts, freeing Ferin from servitude, Hywyl and both of their families from near doom, and her age-curse (though her hair keeps a silvery tint to it, which Hywyl comments that it looks like starlight, a small nod to the fact that Seren means "star" in Cambrian).