There is much to be said of this fascinating wood. Of all the native trees of the British Isles, it is the Elder tree which is the rarest Wand wood of all, and reputed to be deeply unlucky. In this same vein, the Druids and ancient Celtic Wizards recognized that the Elder wand is trickier to control than any other. It contains unmatched raw potential and preeminent powerful magic, and is capable of the greatest range of magic; however, of all the woods I offer it is by far the most difficult to master.
It has been said that the Wand of Elder is simply the most ruthless of wands in its nature in that it will only take into consideration strength, and knows no loyalty except to strength. Completely unsentimental; it will only go where power is. The truth of the Elder wand however, is that it is perhaps the only wood that scorns to remain with any owner who is not the true superior of his or her company; taking a remarkable Witch or Wizard to maintain ownership or control over an Elder wand for any length of time. Its unlucky reputation, steeped in fear, comes forth in the ancient superstition, ‘’Wand of Elder, never prosper,’’ but in fact, these superstitions are seemingly baseless, and those foolish Wandmakers who refuse to work with Elder do so more because they doubt they will be able to sell their products than from fear of working with this wood. The truth is that only a highly unusual person will find their perfect match in an Elder wand, and on those rare occasions when such a pairing occurs, I believe that the Witch or Wizard in question is marked out for a very special destiny.
Other old names for Elder are Elderberry, Eldrun, Hyldor and Hyllantree. In Low Saxon the name was Ellhorn. An additional fact that I have unearthed during my long years of study is that the owners of Elder wands almost always feel a powerful affinity with those chosen by Rowan wands. It is written that Ellhorn is noted to be one of the only woods capable of containing the recalcitrant raw power of Thestral tail hair as its core.