Lamias

The Lamias are water-associated folkloric presences in the world of the novel, named in Elizondo’s public landscape and heard, though not seen, in Amaia Salazar’s dream. Their appearances are brief, but they give the Baztán River an uncanny double character: a familiar local setting and a threshold where the dead and the living seem to draw near.

Identity and Setting

The novel identifies a fountain in Elizondo as the fountain of the Lamias, placing their name within the town’s everyday geography. Their other appearance is at the river, where Amaia hears their feet striking the water. The text supplies no fuller physical description or account of their origins; in the dream, they remain out of sight, known only through the sound attributed to them.

Appearance in Amaia’s Dream

As Amaia sleeps after considering the connections between several murders, she dreams that she is near the river. The Lamias’ splashing comes in a steady rhythm, audible but invisible. Lucía Aguirre then appears with a severed arm, looking toward Amaia in terror. When their eyes meet, the water sounds stop. Lucía repeats the word Amaia has struggled to understand: Tarttalo. The dream’s revelation belongs to Lucía; the Lamias provide its unsettling soundscape, but are not shown speaking or causing the apparition.

Narrative Significance

The contrast between the named fountain and the unseen beings in the dream joins ordinary town life to an image of a hidden, parallel world. Earlier, as Amaia looks at the Baztán River, its reflections make the water seem like another damp world beneath the surface, deceptively still. In the dream, that stillness gives way to splashing, then falls silent as Lucía appears. The Lamias therefore mark the river as a place where perception shifts from the familiar to the uncanny, while the dream’s concrete clue—the name Tarttalo—returns Amaia to the murder investigation. The novel also presents other local beliefs, including the mairu-beso tradition, but does not equate those beliefs with the Lamias.