So the north wind bade the princess good speed, and she began to climb upon the whale's back; but it was so steep and slippery, that she found it very difficult to ascend. Several times she slipped down again to the rock, and the whale began to snort and blow with impatience. At length the princess accomplished the ascent, and thanking the north wind, she was borne away towards the island. Before they reached it, however, the whale plunged down under water, and swam so far under the waves, that the princess thought she should certainly never come up alive. At length, however, the huge creature emerged, and the princess recovering her breath, and wiping the brine from her eyes and nostrils, asked the whale why he treated her so rudely?
"Why were you so long in getting up?" asked the whale. "Every minute of your delay might prepare an arrow for my hide; and methinks that great savage north wind, whom nobody can hurt, might just as well have carried you to the shore, when he had brought you so far; but these northern creatures are only barbarians."
The princess thought she knew which was the more civilized of the two; but she was too prudent to speak, as she might have this time gone to the very bottom of the sea. So she was silent, till the whale rubbed the green edge of the island with his side, when she leaped down, and spite of his rudeness, thanked him kindly for his good office.
The princess now approached the front of the castle, and seating herself under the windows, played with the golden apple, and the first person that she saw was the witch stepmother.
"What wilt thou have for thy golden apple?" demanded she of the princess as she threw open the window.
"That is not to sell, neither for gold nor money," said the princess.
"If thou wilt not sell it for gold nor for money, what then wilt thou take for it?" asked the stepmother. "I will give thee whatever thou desirest."
"Oh, then!" said the princess, "if thou wilt do that, thou shalt have it; and the price is, that I am admitted for an hour to see the prince who lives in this castle."
"That shalt thou," said the stepmother, and took the golden apple. But when the princess came into the prince's room, there he lay in such a deep sleep that the princess could not wake him. She called to him, shook him, wept and lamented aloud and passionately, but all in vain. She saw that he was held fast under a spell; and as soon as the hour was past came the stepmother, and chased the princess from the room and from the castle.
The next day the princess seated herself again before the castle, put yarn upon the golden reel, and began to wind it off into a ball. And now it happened just as it had done the day before. The stepmother asked what she would take for the golden reel, and she replied that it was not to be sold for money or gold; but if she might for just one hour more see the prince, she would give her the reel The stepmother gladly agreed, took the reel, and conducted the princess into the hall where the prince was. But he was, just as the day before, in so deep a sleep, that, spite of all that the princess could do, she could not wake him. She called to him, and shook him, and wept and lamented bitterly, but all in vain; and the moment that the hour was up, the stepmother came and chased her from the room and the castle.