Sir Harry the Muse was a very poetic owl, but insisted on using his rhyming ability only for casual conversation. He first appeared when Matthias and his friends were trying to climb up a cliff. The fox they were tracking, Slagar the Cruel, had cleverly pulled up the rope ladders that he and his band had used to scale the cliffs. So, in exchange for food, Sir Harry flew up and let down the ladders. Later, when the heroes had returned to Redwall Abbey, he was elected the Leader and Poetry Instructor of the Sparra colony, and repeatedly resigned because of the Sparra's manner of talking.