“O, yes, I know very well where the castle lies,” said the North Wind. “I blew an aspen leaf there just once, and then I was so weary that I could not blow at all for many a long day. But if you want to get there above all things, and are not afraid of me, I will take you on my back, and see whether I can blow you there.”
The maiden said that she must and would get to the castle, if it were by any means possible, and that she was not afraid, no matter how hard the journey might be. “Very well, then you must stay here over night,” said the North Wind. “For if we are to get there to-morrow, we must have the whole day before us.”
Early the next morning the North Wind awakened the maiden. Then he blew himself up, and made himself so large and thick that he was quite horrible to look at, and thereupon they rushed along through the air as though they meant to reach the end of the world at once. And everywhere beneath them raged such a storm that forests were pulled out by the roots, and houses torn down, and as they rushed across the sea, ships foundered by the hundreds. Further and further they went, so far that no one could even imagine it, and still they were flying across the sea; but gradually the North Wind grew weary, and became weaker and weaker. Finally he could hardly keep going, and sank lower and lower, and at last he flew so low that the waves washed his ankles.
“Are you afraid?” asked the North Wind.
“No, not at all,” answered the maiden. By now they were not far distant from the land, and the North Wind had just enough strength left to be able to set down the maiden on the strand, beneath the windows of the castle that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. And then he was so wearied and wretched that he had to rest many a long day before he could set out for home again.
The next morning the maiden seated herself beneath the windows of the castle and played with the golden apple, and the first person who showed herself was the monster with the nose, whom the prince was to marry.
“What do you want for your golden apple?” asked the princess with the nose, as she opened the window.
“I will not sell it at all, either for gold or for money,” answered the maiden.
“Well, what do you want for it, if you will not sell it either for gold or for money?” asked the princess. “Ask what you will!”
“I only want to speak to-night to the prince who lives here, then I will give you the apple,” said the maiden who had come with the North Wind.