In Taylor Swift’s Folklore love triangle, the narrator of “august” is romantically involved with James. The song presents the perspective of an unnamed girl who has a brief summer relationship with him.
James is also the central character connected to the other two songs in the trilogy: “Cardigan,” which is associated with Betty’s perspective, and “Betty,” which is told from James’s perspective. Together, the songs depict different moments and viewpoints in the same fictional relationship story.
The narrator in “august” is not officially named in the song itself. Swift has discussed the character using names such as Augustine or Augusta, but those labels describe the character rather than replacing James as the romantic counterpart.
A common mistake is to treat the three songs as autobiographical. Swift created the characters and story arcs as fictional narratives for Folklore, using shifting perspectives and recurring details to connect the tracks.