We had so much discussion on this subject on one medieval forum I frequent that in the end the term "Dark Ages" was banned and replaced with "The Ages of Insufficient Light". This was around the time of a very long and very acrimonious series of debates about the Battle of Hastings, which therefore came to be known as "The Battle that Shall Not be Named". Agincourt soon became "The Other Battle That Shall Not be Named" for similar reasons and "Braveheart" became simply "The Scottish Movie".

But I digress ...

Personally, I try to avoid the term "the Dark Ages". Strictly speaking, a historical "dark age" refers to a period for which there are few written sources and the period of English history from the Fifth to the Eighth Century does fall into that category. But, in popular parlance, a "Dark Age" is a period of unrelieved barbarism, primativism and ignorance. This gives the wrong impression about early medieval England.

Worse, there are many people who use the term "Dark Ages" to refer to the whole medieval period and perpetuate the myths that medieval people practiced no science, suppressed ancient knowledge, invented nothing, discouraged reason and believed the earth was flat until the coming of the so-called 'Renaissance'.

Frankly, if avoiding the term "Dark Ages" altogether can go some way towards correcting this widespread and baseless misapprehension, then I'd encourage it.

Cheers,
Thiu

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