- Tennyson amended the traditional spellings of several names to fit the metre but Malory did not use traditional spellings in his prose.
- In Malory’s version, Arthur is accompanied by two friends, Lucan and Bedivere, while Tennyson mentions only Bedivere.
- In Malory’s work Le Morte d’Arthur, Guinevere is sentenced to be burnt at the stake but is rescued by Lancelot, But In the Idylls of King, Guinevere flees to a convent, is forgiven by Arthur, repents, and serves in the convent until she dies.
- Both authors recount the dream that Arthur sees shortly before his final clash with the enemy. However, according to Malory, the prediction that the king hears is not fixed. He should avoid fighting Mordred in order to live. Tennyson, on the other hand, makes the prediction of the dream final. Arthur will surely die.
- Malory prefaces the final battle with the scene of peace negotiations, Launcelot’s kinsmen requests the peace negotiations to king Arthur but Gawain rejects it which upsets Launcelot. But there is no such scene is found in Tennyson’s work Idylls of the King.
- In Le Morte d’Arthur, King Arthur was warned to not fight until Launcelot could rejoin Arthur, but in the fatal truce ceremony, a snake accidentally crosses a knight’s foot. Instinctively, he draws his sword to kill the snake, but this is misread as a sign of aggression and a betrayal of the peace terms. War breaks out at this point. This seemingly meaningless accident leads to the brutal battle that leaves only a handful of Camelot’s knights standing. Tennyson does not introduce this incident in his portrayal of the battle.
- In Le Morte d’Arthur, Arthur kills Mordred but is fatally wounded by him and dies, as Merlin has prophesied. But in Idylls of the King Arthur kills Mordred, but he is left ‘all but slain himself’ in line 169. So, the ending is doubt full.
- In Le Morte d’Arthur, Launcelot dies of illness. But in Idylls of the King Launcelot’s ending was not given. The poem ended as if Launcelot had disappeared.
Track2Training 