Dead Albatross in dreams
A long-distance ocean bird — a burden you carry, and the long journey it implies.
How dead changes the reading
Dead in the dream means the symbol's energy is no longer in active circulation in your life. The reading is not necessarily grim — most often it is the dream noting that something you had been carrying has run its full course and you can stop carrying it.
The base reading of Albatross
An albatross in a dream is two old images at once. It is the long-haul traveller who can stay aloft for weeks without landing, and — through Coleridge — the weight a person earns by harming what should not have been harmed. The dream brings the bird when something you did, or failed to do, is now travelling with you for a long way. An albatross flying freely is the dream telling you the burden can be released. An albatross hung around the neck is the dream naming a guilt you have not yet found a way to set down.