101
Although the fullest account appears in García-Lomas, (87-91), this is still unduly tainted by the exaggerations and sensationalism of La Osa de Andara. A more balanced account, based on the investigations of one José Antonio Odriozola, is given in Pereda de la Reguera (203-04). According to Odriozola's fieldwork (which included questioning of an 86-year-old woman in Beges in 1966) the so-called Osa de Andara was in fact a timid village-woman named Tía Joaquina who, because of her hairy face when she was young, got into the habit of looking after her flocks in the area of the Lago de Andara and spending very little time in the village. Eventually she overcame her timidity and shame, and returned to the village, married and had children. As in so many similar cases, the idea of the monstrous, kid-eating «Osa de Andara», sparked off by the Juste y Garcés version of 1875, gained a currency which even the publication of an authenticated and balanced account later on could not diminish.
Galdós' preoccupation with «oso» and hairiness or other ursine characteristics can be linked also to his allusion at the beginning of Chapter I to «los Madroñales del Oso». He was no doubt thinking in terms of the Madrid coat of arms and Madrid as «la Villa del Oso y del Madroño». (N. del A.)
102
Peñas arriba was completed in December 1894; Galdós was correcting proofs of Nazarín in July 1895. (N. del A.)
103
The Pico de Santa Ana is situated near Peña Vieja, some six kilometers from Andara. (N. del A.)