It looks like I owe the writers of First Knight, a film I detest, an apology. They didn’t craft Meleagant out of whole cloth as I thought. I really remember Mordred abducting Guinevere. I am wondering if some of the versions of her abduction that I’ve read didn’t swap Meleagant for Mordred. It’s strange I don’t remember him at all in The Mists of Avalon or Le Morte D’Arthur. I don’t even remember him from Chrétien! It makes me wonder how closely I could have read. I know it’s been well over 15 years in the case of two of those works and more than 10 in the case of the third, but it’s strange I could have completely forgotten such a villain. I really think a lot of this character wound up transformed into Mordred at some point. He does things I remember Mordred doing in, for example, The Alliterative Morte Arthure.

Well, I’m really embarrassed. Teaches me to repeat what I’ve heard other critics say about a film I don’t like before checking out their claims first.