Albert (Discworld)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
| Characters from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series | |
| Character details | |
| Full name: | Alberto "Albert" Malich |
| Description: | Death's butler, formerly a wizard. |
| Associations: | Death Mort Susan Sto Helit |
| Location: | Death's Domain |
| Story appearances | |
| First seen: | Mort |
| Also in: | Reaper Man Soul Music Hogfather |
| Other details | |
| Notes: | Must remain in Death's Domain after his hourglass of life broke, leaving just 5 seconds of life left |
Albert is a character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels, first appearing in Mort
Albert, known as Alberto Malich when he founded the Unseen University, tried to perform the Rite of AshkEnte backwards in order to gain immortality. It worked, in a way, since Malich was sent to Death's Domain, where Time does not flow the same as on the Discworld. Death now employs him as his butler. He had 91 days, three hours and five minutes of Time left on the Disc, most of which he spent shopping and using the soap and bath at the Young Men's Reformed Cultist of the Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth's Association (Death is not very good at making plumbing).
There was a statue of Alberto in the hallway of Unseen University, inscribed (apart from the usual student scribbles) with We Shall Not See His Like Again. This, of course, turned out to be entirely wrong. After the destruction of the statue in Mort, it was suggested that a new one was built in a very secure place, such as the dungeon.
When Death was missing in Soul Music, Albert tried to find him on the Disc but got robbed and his life-timer (hourglass of life) was broken. After this incident, Albert has approximately 5 seconds left, and thus cannot return back to the world of the living anymore, as Death cannot make his life longer. The remaining sand is now kept in a bottle in Albert's bedroom.
While Death and Albert seem to get on, it is a very fragile relationship. In Mort Albert returned to the world to help Death, but seemed ready to attack him when it looked like he had got his former job as Archchancellor back. He also seemed not to trust Death with his life-timer, which is why he took it with him in Soul Music. Frequently Albert finds himself trying to keep Death "on course" when his master is becoming too human. He and Susan do not get on very well.
Albert is also a highly idiosyncratic cook, believing everything needs to be fried to get rid of the germs, including porridge.
Albert is said to be named after philosopher and theologian Albertus Magnus.
Other Media
In Cosgrove Hall's 1996 animated Soul Music, Albert was voiced by Bryan Pringle. In BBC Radio 4's 2004 adaption of Mort, he was voiced by Philip Jackson.
