In the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, what do the shipmates of the ancient mariner hang around his neck?
During an adventure of the ancient mariner, the mariner messes up big time. He did not heed the cardinal rule of the sea; "don't shoot the albatross". The mariner does in this instance kill the bird, and this act plunges him and his crew into a nautical hell.
So, they ultimately hang the bird around the mariner's head as a constant reminder to him that he is a major idiot and that he is the reason for their misfortune. The albatross around the neck has a common meaning. It denotes a mistake that plagues the person that made. It is a specific mistake (burden) that is all to often very costly.
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