‘Vikings’ Season 3 Trailer: Hard Times Ahead for Ragnar 

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‘Vikings’ Season 3 Trailer: Hard Times Ahead for Ragnar

For years, the History Channel has been accused of deviating from actual history in favor of more sensationalized topics like aliens or Bigfoot, but with

is a scripted drama about characters who are more legend than fact, but its adherence to actual historical evidence about Viking culture has given it that rare blend of being educational

season 3 will premiere next month and when it does it’ll be bigger and more elaborate than ever (see: the latest season 3 trailer, above). Beyond teasing what appear to be some spectacular upcoming battles, this new preview shows that while Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) is more secure in his power than ever, there are still conflicts left hanging from the season 2 finale that will need to be resolved.

Season 3 will see Ragnar travel back to Wessex (and shave his head!), but an alliance with King Ecbert seems dubious, and Ragnar’s continuing obsession with Christianity won’t sit well with his Odin-worshipping followers – Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) in particular. There will also be trouble for Ragnar at home as trouble arises between him and his son, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig), but also with his second wife, Princess Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland).

And then there’s Largertha (Katheryn Winnick) – Ragnar’s first wife and now Earl in her own right – who is becoming eerily concerned with how and when she’ll die. It isn’t clear how this factors in with her plans to raid to the south in France, but once there we know she and whoever is with her will have to contend with Lothaire Bluteau’s Emperor Charles and his daughter, Princess Gisla (Morgane Polanski).

Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) and his father Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) in the ‘Vikings’ S3 premiere.

creator Michael Hurt teased that France would be an increasingly important element in season 3, and that it’s a story line that would continue straight through season 4. And if that’s the case, then

coming back for another season just became all the more important.

But first, we’ll need to see how events play out in season 3 – what do think will be Ragnar’s biggest challenge? And what of Lagertha? Will the seer’s prophecy come true sooner than later? Sound off in the comment below!

will return to the History Channel on February 19th @10pm.

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I know I might be in the minority, but I tried to watch a couple episodes of this show, and just could not get into it at all. Strange, because I like history, and I am half-Danish as far as my ancestors are concerned!

I gave the show another try a couple of months later and binch watched it and it was much better the second time around ! It needs a couple of eps in a row to get you !

…I always hated it when people told me I should do homework just to enjoy what should be entertainment, and now I’m doing it…

Try this: get the pictoral version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles from the library or from B&N (ca. $15 at most). It’s a good read and has a lot of good illustration without you thinking you’re being “Clif Noted” or reading a “Dummies Guide to Vikings” or whatever. It paints the Vikings as pretty bad people, but they were after all the enemy…until later.

In there, look up “Lindisfarne”. Remember Ragnar and the boys attacking a monastery and taking the monk Athelstan prisoner? That’s Lindisfarne, and it gives you an entry point into the story that’s historically correct.. The raid on Lindisfarne is the so-called beginning of the Viking marauder phase that went on for ca. 300 years. It looks like small potatoes now when you look at a map because it’s just across the North Sea from Denmark and Norway, but things went far beyond that — France, Iceland, Greenland and even to Constantinople where the norsemen wound up serving in the palace guard! Oh, and in Canada there’s the reconstruction of Leif Eiriksson’s digs (his dad Eirik the Red couldn’t make it) at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland that came about in 1000AD. You can drive there if you’re adventurous and like rugged scenery!

Very excited. I’ll have to re-watch season 2 in preparation. Only if the seasons weren’t so far apart!

They better not kill Lagertha, she’s one of the best characters in anything ever.

One of the best shows on television. At first, yes, you have to be patient with it. Not because the episodes are bad, but because the show runs at a different pace. We are so used to quick Aaron Sorkin banter and packing as much action into an hour show as possible, that when a show marches to the beat of its own drum and differs from everything else, we tend to not like it. I was this way just recently with Downton Abbey. How do you go from marathoning The Walking Dead to Downton Abbey.

The Vikings show is a beautiful, deep character development, and wonderful acting. Can’t get enough of it.

Well, history (at least according to Saxo Grammaticus, Snorri and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) says King Aelle is Ragnar Lo(th)bruk’s downfall. But the series is so good and has so much historically relevant to draw on that it should go on for at least another decade. Finally, the horny-helmeted silliness is giving way to as factual a story as one can hope for. And the sets, depiction and scenery are spectacular! Maybe folks will get unplugged from the tripe that’s being put out now as medieval and jump into the real thing!

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