But there is still the absence of the 837 apparition of Comet Halley in the Irish Annals, but was recorded in other societies. The point is that a conspicuous celestial event could miss being recorded by some societies but recorded by others. The local weather of course plays a big part in this, and Ireland can be a rather grey and soggy place at times, which could explain why Halley was not recorded in 837 by the Irish, who, lets face it, were happy to just keep on brawling with themselves to keep their spirits up.

But to bring things back around to the 14C event of 775, we have these suggested events

1) A Massive solar flare, or series of smaller flares
2) A flare caused by a comet impact
3) A nearby gamma ray burst caused by a binary merger of neutron stars/black holes
4) A close supernova

The first three of these does not require the actual event being witnessed, but there would likely be effects such as striking auroral displays (which observation would depend upon local weather conditions). A supernova on the other hand should be observable to a vast majority of societies, and could indeed be recorded, since it tends to remain bright for quite a long time.

Then of course the Roger of Wendover and the Anglo Saxon chronicles could be talking of a completely different event, and one more localised, such as a large sporadic fireball. they could even be confusing the sighting of comets. The Chinese observed a comet in 773, and in 776, close to the 774 and 776 dates of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and Roger for their portents.

These could all be possibilities, but I think it is premature for scientists to dismiss historical documents reporting strange portents in the sky at the same time we know of a physical earth effecting event. What if it was a supernova and it occurred in the southern hemisphere, and in the Sun-ward direction, it may have escaped being historically recorded then, but may show up in indigenous myth. Even then, scientists can be very quick to ignore myth, or indeed "historical records" as eye-witness accounts of actual observed events.




The path to good scholarship is paved with imagined patterns. - David M Raup