Heáfod-segn

According to the Old English Dictionary:

es;

heáfod-segn

m. An ensign having a head (not a flag ?) :-- Hét þá in beran eafor heáfodsegn, . . . helm, herebyrnan, gúðsweord, B. 2152-4. These are the ' feówer maðmas' (l. 1027), given to Beowulf by Hrothgar, of which the first is elsewhere (1021-2) described as 'segen gyldenne, hroden hiltecumbor'. It would seem, then, to have been an ensign, which had at the head of its shaft (hilte) the figure of a boar. Perhaps the poet of the Exodus had the same kind of ensign in mind where he says that the tribe of Judah, 'Hæfden him tó segne . . . gyldenne león,' Exod. 319-21. heafod-segn