“So, it was either Krakatoa exploding or two massive asteroid strikes that caused the Dark Ages? Cool!!!!”
Neither had anything to do with the culture/civilizational crash in Europe. You may be thinking about the little ice age.
EARLY MIDDLE AGES
No one definitive event marks the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Neither the sack of Rome by the Goths under Alaric I in 410 nor the deposition in 476 of Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman emperor in the West, impressed their contemporaries as epoch-making catastrophes. Rather, by the end of the 5th century the culmination of several long-term trends—most notably a severe economic dislocation and the invasions and settlement of the various Germanic tribes within the borders of the Western Empire—had changed the face of Rome. For the next 300 years western Europe remained essentially a primitive culture, albeit one uniquely superimposed on the complex, elaborate culture of the Roman Empire, which was never entirely lost or forgotten.
Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano-Related Climate Changes in the 6th Century?
Actually Cassiodorus (sp?) in the first 1/2 of the 500s reported about much strange astronomical/weather activity of a harmful nature. Googe him for more. I think this was also the time of the Plague of Justinian. The plague may have been caused by famine and dislocation upsetting the rat populations around the world.
At any rate, it is true that Rome was already in decline, but this did not help Western civilization. Another factoid. I always wondered why that Carolingian blossoming of Charlemagne did not take off and spread civilization. Then I read in a food and nutrition book that the 100 years after his death were characterized by at least 30 famines, including some that lasted 2 or 3 years. Also weird weather contributed to ergot poisoning of rye in Northern Europe and, along with the introducton of the barberry bush, by Arabs in Southern Europe to wheat rust.