An albatross is a metaphor for a psychological or social burden (most often associated with guilt or shame) that feels like a curse. It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), in which a dead albatross is tied around the neck of a sailor who has brought misfortune to the crew.
Contents
Origin
In the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an albatross follows a ship setting out to sea, which is considered a sign of good luck. However, the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, an act that will curse the ship and cause it to suffer terrible mishaps.
Unable to speak due to lack of water, the ship's crew let the mariner know through their glances that they blame him for their plight and they tie the bird around his neck as a sign of his guilt. From this arose the image of an albatross around the neck as metaphor for a burden that is difficult to escape.
Literature
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, Robert Walton mentions the poem by name and says of an upcoming journey that "I shall kill no albatross", clearly a reference to the poem by Shelley's close acquaintance, Coleridge.
Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick alludes to Coleridge's albatross.
Charles Baudelaire's collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal contains a poem entitled "L'Albatros" (1857) about men on ships who catch the albatrosses for sport. In the final stanza, he goes on to compare the poets to the birds — exiled from the skies and then weighed down by their giant wings, till death.
In Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, first published in 1870, an unnamed crewman unwittingly shoots down an albatross during the first undersea outing the characters enjoy. Several misadventures trouble the ship until Professor Aronnax, Ned Land, and Conseil make their escape as the ship is caught in the Maelstrom.
The Oxford English Dictionary catalogued Coleridge's use of the albatross in 1883.
In his poem Snake, published in Birds, Beasts and Flowers, D. H. Lawrence mentions the albatross in Ancient Mariner.
The cover art for Michael Spivak's A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry, Vol.2, is a painting by the author featuring a sailing ship beneath a dark stormy sky, full of dead jesters and a single living jester having three albatrosses hanging from ropes around his neck, respectively labeled "Cartan", "Riemann", and "Gauss".
In C.S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the ship is caught in the supernatural unnavigable darkness of the Island of Dreams. In a moment of desperation, the character Lucy prays for help and the ship is guided by an albatross in a shaft of light, representing Aslan.
Film
In the 1939 film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Professor Moriarty (George Zucco) baits Holmes by mailing him a drawing of a man with an albatross hung around his neck.
In the 1940 film The Sea Hawk starring Errol Flynn, Albatross is the name of Captain Thorpe's pirate ship.
In the 1979 film The Fog by John Carpenter, a radio-station promo is possessed by ghostly forces to speak out and the word albatross is used to tell of the curse on Antonio Bay.
In the 1982 film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, there is an Albatross sketch.
In the 1987 film "Tin Men" Ernest Tilley, played by Danny de Vito, refers to his unfaithful wife as "An albatross around my neck! You're welcome to her. Keep her, and may you both rot in Hell!"
In the 1987 film Hot Pursuit starring John Cusack, Robert Loggia, and Wendy Gazelle, Albatross is the name of "Mac" MacClaren's sailboat.
In the 1996 Ridley Scott film White Squall, a fictionalized account of the Ocean Academy's ship Albatross, the ship's captain Christopher Sheldon makes mention of the albatross being a very good omen which "embodied the spirits of lost sailors". "Only bad luck if you kill one," he added.
In the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, as the wind picks up and the ship finally breaks out of the doldrums, an albatross is spotted following the ship. When an attempt is made to shoot the bird, the ship's doctor is shot instead.
In the 2005 Joss Whedon film Serenity, Malcolm Reynolds, the captain of Serenity defends the notion that River Tam is an albatross to the crew and later to the Operative. He says that the albatross was good luck until "some idiot killed it". When Malcolm is speaking, he then adds to Inara, "Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint" in a reference to the Coleridge poem. At the end of the film, he calls River "Little Albatross".
Music
In music journalism, the term albatross is sometimes used metaphorically to describe the mixed blessing and curse of a song that becomes so popular it overshadows the rest of the artist's work.
Musical
The musical Thoroughly Modern Millie refers to the albatross in a song called "Forget About the Boy".
The musical Kinky Boots refers to the albatross in a song called "Not My Father's Son".
Songs
(alphabetized by artist)
The band Attalus has a song called "Albatross".
The metalcore band Anterrabae has a song titled "An Albatross Around the Neck".
The band Alesana has a song called "Heavy Hangs The Albatross".
Swedish DJ AronChupa has a song titled "I'm an Albatraoz" which contrasts the attributed personalities of a mouse and an albatross as an allegory of personal growth and female empowerment.
South Korean boy group B.A.P have a song titled "Albatross" on their 5th EP Carnival.
Bert Weedon has a song called "Albatross".
The band Besnard Lakes has a song called "Albatross".
The Canadian rock band Big Wreck has an album titled Albatross containing the lead single also titled "Albatross".
The band Brave Saint Saturn has a song titled "Albatross".
Rapper Chester Watson released a song referencing the poem called "Dead Albatross" in his album Past Cloaks.
The post-hardcore band Chiodos has a song titled "We Swam From Albatross, The Day We Lost Kailey Cost".
The band The Classic Crime has an album titled Albatross.
The band Clutch refers to an "Albatross on your neck" in the song "(In The Wake of) The Swollen Goat" on the Blast Tyrant album.
Television
In Season 2 Episode 18 of Route 66 entitled "How much a pound is albatross?", the guest character Vicki (played by Julie Newmar) refers to her effort to evade a burden of grief: "I left a trail of buried albatross from coast to coast."
In Young Justice Outsiders Season 3 episode 25 Forager as Fred Bugg (with two Gs) says that his glamour stone has become an albatross around his neck.
In Season 2, episode 22 on the Season Finale of Riverdale Alice Cooper says to her daughter Polly “We all have our Albatrosses Polly” speaking of visiting her husband, convicted murderer Hal Cooper in prison.
In season 1, episode 18 of Miami Vice, Detective Switek calls his colleague, Detective Zito, an albatross, after he blows up their undercover operation: "We blew it, Lieutenant, because I'm teamed up with an albatross".
In the UK show Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Alan Partridge requests the audience to desist responding to his catchphrase "aha!" stating, "can we stop that now? It's becoming a bit of an albatross".
In Showtime's Weeds, the main character Nancy refers to another character as, "[an] albatross: my own personal cinder block." Season five episode five.
In the HBO series Deadwood, a character refers to the debt owed to blacks because of slavery as an "albatross around the white man's neck." Episode 304.
In the TNT series Memphis Beat, a character refers to family as "an albatross around the neck of a great man" (Episode 107).
In The New Adventures of Flipper, episode 417 "Mystery Ship", an abandoned boat, a yawl, is discovered with no one aboard. She is named The Albatross. She isn't registered and doesn't appear in any databases. She appears to be sea worthy, but strange accidents occur. Eventually, the couple who salvaged her argue over whether to keep her or not. Upon further search of the boat, a boat builder's plaque is found. The Albatross was built by a boat builder who went out of business in the late 1930s. This discovery leads to a newspaper article about a murder aboard the boat, the Sweet Charlotte. Apparently over time anyone coming in contact with her has bad luck. She has gone from being named the Sweet Charlotte to The Albatross.
Video games
In the fantasy MMORPG RuneScape, This Albatross, known formerly as The Scourge, is the flagship of the infamous pirate lord Rabid Jack. Jack used the ship as his main offensive centre when he attacked Mos Le'Harmless in an effort to gain complete control over the Eastern Sea. When this failed, Jack renamed his ship "This Albatross", which he said would be a curse upon pirates forever. Although the ship was likely destroyed after the latter Battle of Mos Le'Harmless, recent activity suggests the ship may have been revived along with its thought-dead (now seemingly undead) captain.
In the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite, the vigor (potion) "Undertow" is advertised by the vigor dispenser machine with the words "Ancient mariner, let the vigor Undertow disperse the hated albatross".
In the 2010 video game Alpha Protocol, an intelligence agency named "G22" is led by a man under the alias of Albatross, who has the habit of encountering you by chance and often, depending on the players actions, offers valuable information which serves to reinforce the name.
In the 2009 text-based browser game Fallen London, the player character can dream of shooting an albatross and the consequences that come from it.
In the 2004 video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Camarilla Prince Sebastian Lacroix expresses to the player the burden of his position as Prince of L.A. and his worry over the consequences of calling a blood hunt upon Anarch leader - Nines Rodriguez - "The folly of leadership is knowing that no matter what you do, behind your back, there's hundreds certain that their own solution is the sounder one and that your decision was the by-product of a whimsical dart toss. I pronounce the blast sentence, and I soak the critical fallout. I make the decisions no-one else will. Leadership...I wear the albatross and the bullseye."
Unreal Tournament 2004 featured a map called "DM-1on1-Albatross"
In the 1981 video game Ulysses and the Golden Fleece, an albatross drops a bag filled with golden gems onto a boat.