The lexicalisation of magic: the self-conscious fairytale

Abstract

In this paper we show how, on the one hand, the Grimm brothers used their material to promote and uphold a particular ideology and how Hans Christian Andersen, on the other hand, used his stories to undermine one ideology and promote another. Both sets of stories contain magical elements, and we focus in particular on the role which the lexicalisation of magic plays in accomplishing the respective writers' purposes.