2 Pounds - Charles III Beowulf & Grendel's Mother, 1 oz Fine Silver

Beowulf occupies an unusual position in English cultural history — it was composed in Old English, likely between the 8th and 11th centuries, yet survives in a single manuscript, the Nowell Codex, which itself nearly perished in the 1731 Ashburnham House fire. The Royal Mint's decision to issue a multi-coin series treating the poem as a national epic follows a broader push to anchor British identity to pre-Norman literary traditions.

Grendel's mother, who appears in the poem as a more calculated and purposeful antagonist than her son, has attracted sustained scholarly debate since the 19th century — including arguments over whether she even has a proper name in the original text.