Complex sentence: This explanation that Merlin gives may have evolved through re-tellings of the story and through inconsistencies in the legend, but it is clear from Merlin that this sword that Balin has taken from the damsel bears a curse of some kind.
Split into simpler sentences: This explanation that Merlin gives may have evolved through re-tellings of the story and through inconsistencies in the legend, however. But it is clear from Merlin that this sword that Balin has taken from the damsel bears a curse of some kind.