Armar

Armar is a celebrated warrior in the tale Armin recounts about the deaths of his children. His courtship of Daura begins with the promise of a union welcomed by their friends, but Erath’s deception turns that promise into a chain of fatal misunderstandings. Armar’s final attempt to save Daura ends with him lost at sea.

Identity and Courtship

Armin introduces Armar as renowned in war and as the man who sought Daura’s love. Daura did not refuse him for long, and their friends had reason to hope for the match. This early promise makes the later calamity more than a failed rescue: a future that seemed attainable is cut off before the marriage can take place.

Erath’s Deception and the Rescue

Erath, whose brother had been slain by Armar, disguises himself and tells Daura that Armar is waiting for her on a sea rock. The message is false; when Daura reaches the rock and calls for Armar, only Erath is there. After Erath flees, Daura’s cries bring her brother Arindal down from the hill. Arindal binds Erath to an oak and rows out to bring Daura ashore.

Armar then arrives in anger and shoots at Arindal. The arrow strikes Arindal, who dies on the rock; the boat breaks apart. The account gives no further explanation of what Armar believes when he fires, so his action remains part of the confusion set in motion by Erath’s deception rather than a clearly described plan.

Death and Narrative Significance

After the boat breaks, Armar plunges into the sea to rescue Daura or die trying. A sudden storm comes over the waves, and Armar sinks and does not return. Daura is left alone on the rock; she dies there after a night of calling out, while Armin watches from shore. Armar’s rescue attempt therefore ends not in reunion but in the loss of the intended bride, her brother, and himself.

Armar appears within Armin’s account of his family’s destruction, not as the teller of his own story. His brief arc moves from the hopeful prospect of marriage to a fatal intervention, while the tale’s sequence of false message, mistaken violence, and failed rescue gives force to Armin’s grief. The contrast between the friends’ earlier hope and the final deaths makes Armar both a warrior and a participant in a catastrophe that no one in the account is able to undo.