This chapter examines the ways in which two neglected works in the Middle English tradition, Horn Childe and John Lydgate's Gy de Warwyke, engage with conventions that might be more readily associated with medieval epic than with romance. Both of these works have been categorised as romances and belong to what modern scholars have designated the ‘Matter of England’; as such, they have significant investment in historical events and offer some parallels to the ‘Matter of France’. The latter body of narratives, of course, forms the main subject matter of the French vernacular epic mode, the chansons de geste. Horn Childe and Lydgate's Gy de Warwyke are both part of wider insular traditions that appear to go back to original works in Anglo-Norman. In each case, those Anglo-Norman works have affiliations with the chansons de geste, which have been acknowledged by a number of scholars. However, far less attention has been paid to the impact of epic elements on adaptations in Middle English. It seems to me that Horn Childe and Lydgate's Gy de Warwyke not only carry over epic conventions and values already embedded in their respective narrative traditions but actually heighten such elements and add further ones of their own invention. These two texts engage with the interface between romance and epic in active and, at certain moments, innovative ways.

Previous discussions of Horn Childe and Gy de Warwyke tend to place these works in dialogue with chronicle writing, rather than with epic. Matthew Holford's extensive analysis of Horn Childe concludes that in this work the ‘imperatives of historical writing are combined to an unusual degree with the conventions of romance’. Gy de Warwyke's most recent editor, Pamela Varvolden, adds a further category to the mix, observing that the text ‘mingles characteristics of the genres of history, romance, and saint's life’. This tendency to turn to ‘history’ (or, less frequently, hagiography) as the most obvious generic alterative to ‘romance’ reflects a more widespread convention in discussion of insular romance. The term ‘epic’ is rarely employed as a conceptual category in discussions of Middle English works. There seem to be two primary reasons for this. Firstly, ‘epic’ is, if possible, an even vaguer designation than ‘romance’. Secondly, the epic mode is very firmly associated with the pre-Conquest literary landscape.