History Channel’s Vikings is back for a brand-new season, and ETonline has your exclusive first look!

After seizing victory from the jaws of defeat with an epic battle in Paris last season, Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) returns home dangerously ill. With his health issues possibly crippling him, others seek to take over his throne -- including his own wife and eldest son.

In one of two intense season four promos, which will debut on History Channel this week, Ragnar ominously foretells the bloodshed that awaits.

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“Power, it’s dangerous. This, I have always known. Look at what power has given me since I invaded Paris. I found myself thinking, ‘What use this power?’” he cryptically says. “You see the problem with power is the more you have, the more others want it. And in my world, power can only be truly be built… with blood.”

But as the music swells and the camera pans to a close-up of his face, he settles in for the long battle ahead: “Only fools believe they can live forever by avoiding the fight. I embrace the idea of death.”

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Meanwhile, Lagertha (Kathryn Winnick) -- the fierce warrior once married to Ragnar -- is one of those people desperately seeking to topple the throne: “I embrace the idea of life and death for I am not the one in charge of my fate. The gods have already written my story.”

Bring. It. On!



Vikings premieres Thursday, Feb. 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History Channel.