Author's Note: This poem is my personal take on Rowling's "The Ballad of Odo the brave". As with most songs to be sung to children, it contains enough detail to tell a story but not so much as to leave too little to the imagination. If I have not made this balance to your satisfaction I pray you spare me no criticism, and yourself no pains in telling the story properly.
Odo, brave Odo was born in the year
Of the dragon of iron and brass,
Born to a witch of the Cottonweir woods,
And dropped once, but just on his face,
Brave Odo, his hat was of weir-cotton wove,
And his wand was of willow and brass,
As a lad he would play with no care in the world
With free elves and a fair muggle lass
But he knew as he grew that the good days would end
And his elven friends stepped from his way
For we wizards would move from our world into theirs,
And the elves wished to see our last day
Then brave Odo dueled with the wild elven court,
And they ceded he had the best skill,
"While my head's in my hat and my wand's in my hand,
We'll have peace, for that is my will!"
So saying he went to the wild elven home,
To broker the peace as they say,
And he sang and he drank with the wild elven hosts
But he wore out his welcome one day
Some say it was him and some say it was them,
And some point to one fair muggle lass,
But what wizard who drinks with elves not of his house
Ever knows what he'll find in the flask?
Sometimes free elves duel, and sometimes they fight
When they fight best to leave them the field,
But brave Odo he stood with his wand in his hand
And though offered, he declined to yield.
Seven days and eight nights spell and elven art clashed,
The result you can see to this day
For no muggle may pass to the elf-world unasked,
And no wizard may pass either way.
And Odo, brave Odo, they bore him back home,
To the places he'd known as a lad,
And they laid him to rest with his hat inside out
And his wand snapped in two, which was sad.
