Armin

Armin is a chief whose identity is defined by the loss of his children. In the Ossianic song read aloud by Werther, he tells how Daura and Arindal died and how he was left the last of his race. His account turns private grief into an act of remembrance: the children are gone, but the story preserves their names and the circumstances of their deaths.

Identity and Family

Armin is identified as chief of sea-surrounded Gorma. In conversation with Carmor, he contrasts Carmor’s living family—his son Colgar and daughter Annira—with his own bereavement: Armin says that the branches of Carmor’s house still rise, while he is the last of his race. The contrast makes his loss not only personal but familial, with no surviving child to continue his line.

The song first presents Armin as remembering the death of his son, who fell young. His fuller account names the dead children as Arindal and Daura: Arindal is his son, and Daura his daughter. Armin’s grief is thus grounded in the deaths of both children, not in a single bereavement.

The Deaths of Daura and Arindal

Armin recalls Daura as beautiful and Arindal as a warrior, then explains how the family was destroyed. Armar sought Daura’s love and was initially welcomed by their friends. Erath, whose brother had been killed by Armar, intervened in disguise and deceived Daura into going to a rock in the sea, where she expected to meet Armar. Erath fled, leaving her stranded.

Daura’s cries brought Arindal down from the hill, dressed for the hunt with his bow, arrows, and five dogs. He seized Erath and bound him to an oak before taking a boat out to rescue his sister. Armar arrived in anger and shot Arindal with a gray-feathered arrow. The boat stopped; Arindal died on the rock, and Daura’s grief was compounded by seeing her brother’s blood at her feet. Armar then plunged into the sea to reach her, but a sudden blast swept over the waves; he sank and did not rise again.

Daura remained alone on the sea-beaten rock. Armin says he stood on the shore throughout the night, saw her by the moon’s faint light, and heard her cries through the wind and rain. Her voice weakened before morning, and she died from exhaustion and grief. Armin survived, but describes his strength in war and his pride among women as gone.

Grief and Remembrance

The landscape becomes inseparable from Armin’s memory. When storms rise and the north wind lifts the waves, he sits beside the sounding shore and looks toward the fatal rock. The place is not merely the setting of Daura’s death; it is the recurring focus of his mourning, returning him to the night when his children fell.

Armin also says that, by the setting moon, he often sees the ghosts of his children walking together in mournful conversation. The vision extends his remembrance beyond the immediate scene of loss, while leaving the dead beyond his reach. His question about when Daura will wake with her songs gives grief the form of longing for a return that the story cannot provide.

Role in the Ossianic Recitation

Armin’s lament is presented within the Ossianic poetry Werther reads to Charlotte. In the song, Carmor asks why Armin sighs when the music should soften and please the soul; Armin answers by recounting the deaths that make the song itself a source of sorrow. The exchange sets consoling music against the memories it awakens: the song moves its listeners, but it cannot restore the dead.

As Werther reads the passage, Charlotte’s tears stop his recitation. He drops the book, takes her hand, and weeps; both feel that the misfortunes of the Ossianic heroes reflect their own fate. Armin’s family tragedy therefore also shapes the novel’s reading scene: his story becomes a medium through which Werther and Charlotte experience their shared sorrow, even as Charlotte eventually begs Werther to leave.