The Rime of the Ancient Mariner of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed. The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret: Eventually, the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly-pale woman,
Doldrums of days or weeks. Colloquially, the "doldrums" are a state of inactivity, mild depression, listlessness, or stagnation. The word may be derived from "dold," an archaic term meaning "stupid", and "-rum(s)", a noun suffix found in such words as "tantrum." The doldrums are notably described in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798), in Patrick O'Brian's novel "Desolation Island" (1978), and in Laura Hillenbrand's non-fiction book "" (2010). Additionally, the Doldrums are a fictional place in Norton Juster's novel "The Phantom Tollbooth" (1961). Noel Gallagher used the term to describe a woman stuck in the decade