A wretch who led a band of riff-raff in an attack on the castle of the lady Alma.
Prince Arthur, defending Alma, encountered Maleger in single combat. Earth was Maleger’s mother, and every time Arthur knocked him down to the earth, Maleger arose stronger. Arthur finally picked him bodily off the ground, crushed him lifeless, and threw him into a lake.
Source
The Faerie Queene | Edmund Spenser, 1570-1599