Myself, I prefer Malory's terseness to Tennyson's prolixty. I've read Idylls of the King and found it heavy work. That said, the last of the Idylls (though the first to be written) is a complete and utter triumph- and one of the greatest English poems of any era.
I will say Merlin seems more powerful, and more mysterious, in Malory's version. Somehow being aware of Nimue's treachery beforehand seems to give him a kind of victory.
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