> Á Aðalbóli búi sínum mönnum: (l. 856). I'm not quite sure which are

the "direct" objects and which the "indirect" in this sentence. And
does "sínum" belong with "búi" or with "mönnum" ?


'sínum' must go with 'mönnum', because it's masculine. If it agreed
with the neuter 'búi', it would be 'sínu'. I take 'búi' (dative sg.
of bú) to be in apposition to Aðalbóli: "Adalbol Farm", "the Farm
at/of/called Adalbol". The dative argument of 'skipa', in this
case 'sínum mönnum' signifies who is being installed. If there was an
accusative argument expressed, that would be the position they were
being installed in, set up in, assigned to. But in this sentence, the
place of the accusative argument has been taken by the prepositional
phrase 'á Aðalbóli'. That's where they're being installed. For a
comparable example, see Zoega 'skipa' (1) jarlinn skipaði þeim hjá
Gunnlaugi "the jarl assigned them places next to Gunnlaugr".

> þeira Hrafnkels: (l. 869) As the reflexive pronoun is not used here,

I take it that that "their" refers to the brothers and Hrafnkel and
that Sám does not mean to include himself in the reference. Comments?


No, I think it does in fact refer to Sam himself and Hrafnkel. That
makes most sense in the context to me, and it's how Gwyn Jones
interprets it. For a comparable example, see Mágus saga, ch. 7:

kallar hon föður sinn á stefnu við sik ok tjáir honum öll viðskipti
þeira konungs [ http://saga.library.cornell.edu/saganet/?
MIval=/SinglePage&Manuscript=100401&Page=26&language=english ].

The speaker is referring to what has gone on between herself and her
husband.