The article is devoted to the problem of the evolvement of the modal semantics of the Old English verb ‘willan based on the current pragmalinguistic approach to the semantic development of linguistic units within a certain historical period. Taking into account its semantic and functional similarity to the group of the preterito-present verbs commonly related to the Old English proto-modals the examples of the uses of ‘willan’ in «Beowulf» were examined from the point of view of its capability to express different logical-semantic types and communicative shades of volitional modality. The research has revealed certain context-discourse factors affecting the development of ‘willan’ as a verb rendering dynamic, deontic and epistemic modalities.