Spinnfried the Spyder

At the very top of the attic of a small house there lives a little spider called Spinnfried. He's no ordinary eight-legged creature—no, Spinnfried is an artist. With his delicate threads, he weaves intricate webs that sparkle and shine when the sun shines through the skylight.

But Spinnfried has a huge problem. He's very shy. No, worse—he's scared, scared of the world outside. He's heard stories: about ordinary spiders, moody beetles, and nasty bees, about little people who hunt spiders, and about big people who catch them and take them away because they don't like spiders. So he prefers to stay indoors. Alone.

And because he worries so much, and because he doesn’t like the cold, he starts knitting. He knits himself eight socks—one for each of his long legs. And to make things a bit more interesting, he uses a different color for each sock. Thus, his feet bring some color to his rather monotonous and sometimes boring daily life. They help to cheer him up.

Day after day, Spinnfried sits in his comfortable attic room, spinning his webs. sees how beautiful my art is," he murmurs. "But going outside... I don't dare." He sighs softly: "No one But one morning, just as he's gotten up and opened the window, a gust of wind blows through it. The wind rushes through Spinnfried's room and tugs at one of his most beautiful webs—and whoosh!—it flutters away.

Spinnfried gasps excitedly. "My work of art! My favorite web!" Without hesitation, he jumps up trembling, puts on his eight colorful socks, gathers all his courage, and climbs to the window. With a very long spider's thread, he lets himself down—and lands outside. Outside! The world smells of earth and adventure. He's really scared because everything is so big and so loud. And so new. Just then Spinnfried realizes that he'd unfortunately lost one of his great socks while climbing out in his excitement. Oh dear, now there are only seven colorful socks left.

When he reaches the ground, he hears a voice very clearly: "Oh! Who are you?" He's startled and can hardly dare to look around. Then he hears the question again and when he turns around, a beetle is standing there: "I'm Konrad the Beetle, and I'm just about to go for a walk. Would you like to come with me?" Spinnfried quickly explained to Konrad that he didn't have time for a walk right then because he had to look for his web, which the wind had blown away. Konrad immediately offered to help Spinnfried find his web. So they both ran toward the garden, where they could already see the beautiful, sparkling net.

When they reached it, Konrad the Beetle was amazed by the wonderful web that the wind had blown all the way into the garden. "I've never seen anything so beautiful!" Konrad exclaimed, "You're a great artist! Why have you been hiding for so long?" Spinnfried smiled shyly: "I, I... was afraid - afraid of being different and afraid of people who are much bigger than me. When I think back, it felt very cold being so alone because I didn't manage to find the courage and strength to overcome it. The wind has helped me now, and I'm very grateful for that."

"Different is good," Boris said, hugging him. And as Spinnfried stood there, feeling very emotional, Mira, the moor spider, who loves to dance, came along, and so did Theo, the tunnel-building beetle, and Lotte, the air spider, who likes to spin her webs on trees. Everyone wanted to hear Spinnfried's story. They sat together in the garden listening to Spinnfried as he told his tale of the lonely days and weeks and the incredibly great courage he showed when he finally dared to try something new.

And one more thing: The children from the house where Spinnfried lives have long since gotten to know him. At first, they were a bit cautious – after all, many thought spiders were dangerous or scary. But when they saw how friendly Spinnfried was and how beautifully his webs shone, they too were thrilled. So not only did Spinnfried lose his fear – the children also learned that spiders aren't monsters, but peaceful, artistic, and quite brave little creatures. And from that day on, Spinnfried was never alone again. He shows everyone his webs, learns from the others, and even spins beautiful works of art with his new friends. His friends show him the beautiful garden and take him on outings so he can discover more of the big world. Since he now has so many new friends, Spinnfried also encourages them to visit him at his home in Tyrol from time to time. So Spinnfried now looks forward to every new day, regardless of whether it rains or shines.

And you know what? Spinnfried is so happy that he’s not going to knit himself an eighth sock anymore. Not out of fear, but as a reminder of how brave he was.