Two dark questions?

I think Seth has the first one right.

The DarK Ages are called dark because we have

so little in the form of written records from this period.

We can't "see" what was going on without records.

It's very frustrating studying this period.

There were interesting things happening,

but very few people were writing them down.

Many records that did survive were from monasteries.

Writing by monks would have a definite religious slant

- a limited viewpoint - not very worldly.

Even monastic writings are rare because so many were destroyed in Viking raids between ~ 790 to about 1050.

Vikings loved to attack monasteries. There was silver and some gold to be found there - plus, the monks put up little resistance so casualties were minimal. The Vikings had

no use for the handwritten books or scrolls.

"Pilgrim Looking Through a Glass Darkly"

The dark side of the moon is called dark, because we on earth are never able to see it: the moon doesn't revolve on it axis, therefore we only see the side facing the earth.

The dark ages are called so, because of the lack or very limited access to an education, or any kind of knowledge in general. When the Roman Empire fell, all forms of "civilization" other than the Church, simply disintegrated. The monasteries were the chief repositories of what little knowledge was retained or gathered; and it was from their storehouse of what was left of Greek and Roman civilization, that the Renaissance finally emerged.

Wotan

[1] The Dark side of the moon is called dark because that is the side we can't see.

[2] The dark ages are dark because during this period nothing new or better evolved until the end of this period and the beginning of the renaissance.

As above.