MELIANT

1. Meliant
   
   A nephew of King Faramon of France in the Prose Tristan. He was accused of theft at the same time that Faramon’s daughter, Belide, falsely accused Tristan of rape. Faramon offered Belide a choice of saving either Meliant or Tristan; when she chose Tristan, he knew she was lying about the crime. The same character is named Brano in La Tavola Ritonda.
   
   
   
2. Meliant
   Melianus
   
   An ancestor of Gawain, descended from Peter. Meliant inherited the kingdom of Orkney from his father, Herlan, and passed it to his son, Argistes.
   
   
   
3. Meliant
   
   Arthurs lord of Cardueil who led a battalion in the second war against Claudas.
   
   
   
4. Meliant of Dianarca
   Meleagant, Meliagante, Melyan, Melyant, Melyas
   
   A young knight from Dianarca, Lyle, or Denmark. He was knighted by Galahad at the beginning of the Grail Quest. He was soon badly wounded because he did not make a full confession before embarking on the Quest, because he proudly took a dangerous road, and because he covetously stole a crown. He recovered, and was present at Corbenic when Galahad completed the Quest. Arthur appointed him to the Round Table, but Meliant pledged his support to Lancelot when the latter’s affair with Guinevere was exposed. He helped rescue the queen from the stake, and fought against Arthur at the battles of Joyous Guard and Benoic. In return for his support, Lancelot made him the earl of Tursan.
   
   
   
5. Meliant of Liz
   Melian, Melians, Meliant de Lis, Melianz, Mellianz, Meljanz of Liz, Miljanz, Melias de Lile
   
   Meliant's father was the friend and, it would seem, the liege lord of Tibaut of Tintagil. Dying, Meliant's father entrusted his young son to Tibaut to bring up, which charge Tibaut worthily carried out. While still a squire, Meliant sought the love of Tibaut's elder daughter. On her insistence, he became a knight and then, to satisfy her further demands that he prove his worth, he challenged her father Tibaut to a tournament. In her eyes, Meliant was the handsomest and best knight in this tournament; Gawaine, to please Tibaut's younger daughter, the Maid with Little Sleeves, finally entered the fighting and unhorsed Meliant at once. One can only hope that it did not destroy poor Meliant's chance for love. One may guess that it did not, for in his first romance Chrétien had listed Meliant of Liz as the seventh best of Arthur's knights.
   
   The similiraty of their names suggests that time and the process of creative transmission turned Chrétien's Meliant of Liz into Malory's Melias de Lile. I found an entry by M.D. Kennedy that Meliant de Lis was a knight whose father had been killed by Lancelot and who, consequently, viewed Lancelot with much venom. Lancelot ultimatedly served him as he had his father.
   

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   See also
   Liz | The Legend of King Arthur
   Meljanz of Liz | The Legend of King Arthur
   
   
   
6. Meliant of Meliadel
   
   A knight whose sister, Melie, was assisted by Arthur's Sir Meriadeuc.