Hwæt!

The second of my three consecutive Beowulf posts ponders the poem's famous first word. How to translate it? I have seen 'Lo!' and 'Attend!' and 'Listen!' and, Heaney's 'So!' All very well and good. Me, I'd like to see the sound of the word reproduced a little better (although 'What?' would be a little Bertie Wooster for this context). In yesterday's post I proposed: 'Hey!' which, though doubtless too informal, fits the bill in other ways. Today I'm wondering whether 'Word!' might not have a suitably early 21st-century vibe to it.