Maleagant (alternatively Malagant, Meleagan, Meleagant, Meleagraunce, Meliagant, Meliagaunt, Meliagant, Meliaganz, Meliagrance, Meliagrant, Mellegrans, Mellyagraunce) is an often otherworldly villain from the Arthurian legend. In a popular Arthurian episode recorded in several different versions, Maleagant abducts King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere, necessitating her rescue by Arthur and his knights, later notably Lancelot (Guinevere's secret lover). The earliest surviving version of this episode names the abductor Melwas in Welsh tales. As Maleagant, he debuts as Lancelot's archenemy in Chrétien de Troyes' French romance Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, where he is a son of the King Bagdemagus.
Melwas
thumb|250px|Depiction of "Mardoc" with "Winlogee" on the archivolt of Modena Cathedral's [[Modena_Cathedral#Porta_della_Pescheria|Porta della Pescheria|alt=]]
Roger Sherman Loomis regarded the form Maleagant or Meleagans as directly derivative of the Brythonic Melwas, calling it "a divine title probably meaning Prince Youth" and listing a number of later variants such as Melians de Danemarche.) carries Guinevere (Gwenhwyfar) off to his stronghold, a "fortification of reed-beds and river and marsh", where she is kept and raped. After a year of searching, King Arthur locates her and prepares to storm the castle, but meanwhile Saint Gildas negotiates her safe return. An early 12th-century monumental carving on the archivolt of Modena Cathedral in Italy shows an apparently related scene where Arthur and his warriors besiege a castle where a character identified as 'Mardoc' sits with 'Winlogee', presumably Guinevere.
The fragmentary medieval Welsh poem Dialogue of Melwas and Gwenhyfer (Ymddiddan Melwas a Gwenhwyfar) calls him Melwas of the Isle of Glass (Ynys Wydrin), akin to the Welsh name for Glastonbury in Somerset.