Maleagant

Maleagant (alternately Meliagant, Meligaunt, Meliagaunt, Meliaganz, Meliagrance, Mellyagraunce, Mellegrans, etc.) is a villain from Arthurian legend. In a number of versions of a popular episode, Maleagant abducts Queen Guinevere, necessitating her rescue by King Arthur and his knights. The earliest surviving version of this episode names the abductor Melwas. Maleagant debuts in Chrétien de Troyes' French romance Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, where he is said to be the son of King Bagdemagus, ruler of the otherworldly land of Gorre. However, all surviving versions seem to be later adaptations of a stock narrative of significantly earlier provenance.

Origins

The earliest version of the popular abduction of Guinevere episode appears in the early 12th-century Latin Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan. In that text Melwas king of the "Summer Country" (Gwlad yr Haf, Somerset) carries Guinevere off to his stronghold of Glastonbury. Arthur locates her after a year of searching and prepares to storm the castle, but Gildas negotiates her safe return. Melwas also appears in a fragmentary Welsh dialogue, indicating that this story was widely known in Wales. A monumental carving on the archivolt of Modena Cathedral in Italy contains a related scene, in which Arthur and his warriors besiege a castle where a character identified as "Mardoc" sits with "Winlogee", presumably Guinevere.