William the Gonnagle is a battle poet and musician. He has white hair and talks in a slow, careful voice with Rs like a tidal wave, more like the Ayreshire Scots of Robbie Burns than like the other Nac Mac Feegles, who sound like a cross between a "Braveheart" character and Billy Connolly . He is 96 years old and is the brother of the late Kelda, coming with her when she took over the Chalk Hill clan. He plays the "mouse pipes" (bagpipes made of a mouse skin) and can change the pipes to make them play notes that only dogs can hear (like a silent dog whistle), used to drive the Grimhounds mad. Gonnagles, unlike bards, do not make up heroic battle songs to tell about the exploits of the warriors after a battle is over. They make up poems to scare the enemy during the battle itself; once they start to recite, the enemy's ears explode. A gonnagle takes its name from Scottish poet, William Topaz McGonagall, widely considered to be the worst poet in the English language and some would argue in any language. William McGonagall's most famous poem is probably The Tay Bridge Disaster which recounts the events of the evening of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, the Tay Rail Bridge near Dundee collapsed as a train was passing over it. The first verse reads:
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
After the old Kelda's death, William expresses a desire to return to his own clan high in the (presumably Ramtop) mountains.