hwæt! or hwæt

So Beowulf famously begins. The first word, hwæt, the interrogative pronoun meaning “what”, is most commonly rendered as an interjection, so that we have something like:

Lo! We have heard of the might of the folk-kings in the bygone days of the Spear-Danes, how those princes performed deeds of valour.

Tolkien likewise renders it “Lo!”; in others we have “Listen!”, “So.”, or “Hark!”. In its entry for what, the OED remarks that hwæt may be “used to introduce or call attention to a statement” in older English. Apparently this interpretation of hwæt dates back even to Jacob Grimm, who concluded in 1837 that it is “purely an exclamation, albeit in a very moderate sense.” It possible that Shakespearean usage of “what!” as an interjection influenced this interpretation.

One can imagine, then, Hwaet! cutting through the chatter and merriment at a feast as the poet stands to tell his tale. Yet despite overwhelming scholarly consensus on this issue, some argue that this understanding is indefensible. As per Tolkien himself, “etymology is not a safe guide to sense.” Graham Scheper summarises the analysis of a paper by George Walkden.¹

• Ælfric, in his 10th century grammar of Latin, gives parallel lists of Latin and Old English interjections. The latter includes eala (oh!), wa is me (woe is me!), huig (alas!), wala (oh no!), afæstla (oh certainly), wellawell (well, well), and so on. Latin ecce (see!, look!, behold!) is not glossed hwæt but efne nu. hwæt is absent from the list altogether. In over 800 occurrences of Latin ecce in Old English texts, it is never glossed or translated hwæt.

• The overwhelming majority of root (or non-subordinate) clauses exhibit V1 (verb-first) or V2 (verb-second) word order (70% in Bede, 76% in Ælfric’s Lives of Saints). Sub-ordinate clauses are mostly V-later, where the verb is pushed after the object (62% and 39%). But hwæt also seems cause V-later word order in majority of cases, even in root clauses (69% and 56%). Notice how Beowulf does not begin we gefrunon … but we … gefrunon. This influence of hwæt on the grammatical structure of the rest of the clause indicates that it is not an interjection.

Rather, it seems that hwæt is more similar to how we might use “how” in introducing an exclamative: “How much you’ve grown!” Then the poet of Beowulf is really expressing an exclamation with regard to the þeodcyngina þrym and the ellen which the æþelingas fremedon:

How we have heard of the might of the folk-kings in the bygone days of the Spear-Danes, how those princes performed deeds of valour.

The Dream of the Rood, which I read in sophomore year, begins similarly:

This is a root clause yet V-later: secgan (to speak) comes after swefna cyst (choicest dream). The poet does not order the listener to attention

Listen! I will tell you of the choicest dream…

but rather boasts in the excellence of his dream and his narration.

How I will tell you of the choicest dream…