This article needs to be rewritten to comply with Tolkien
Gateway's higher standards... The Dark Years was a term for the
long years of hardship of the Men of Middle-earth during the
Second Age. While Númenor flourished, the Men of Middle-earth
endured trouble and war, and many of them turned to the worship
of Sauron in this time. The Dark Years ended with the coming of
Elendil and his sons near the end of the Second Age. Other names
of this period were the Accursed Years, the Black Years, the
Days of Flight, and probably also the Dark Days. While Robert
Foster claimed that the term 'Accursed Years' referred to the
same period as the 'Dark Years', Mark Fisher has noted that the
former is a "term of uncertain meaning" (it could also refer to
the cursed Oathbreakers, thus being a period roughly
corresponding to the Third Age).