diff --git a/lib/utf8decoder.js b/lib/utf8decoder.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cd2bb9672e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/utf8decoder.js
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+var Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer;
+
+var Utf8Decoder = exports.Utf8Decoder = function() {
+  this.charBuffer = new Buffer(4);
+  this.charReceived = 0;
+  this.charLength = 0;
+};
+
+Utf8Decoder.prototype.write = function(buffer) {
+  var charStr = '';
+  // if our last write ended with an incomplete multibyte character
+  if (this.charLength) {
+    // determine how many remaining bytes this buffer has to offer for this char
+    var i = (buffer.length >= this.charLength - this.charReceived)
+      ? this.charLength - this.charReceived
+      : buffer.length;
+
+    // add the new bytes to the char buffer
+    buffer.copy(this.charBuffer, this.charReceived, 0, i);
+    this.charReceived += i;
+
+    if (this.charReceived < this.charLength) {
+      // still not enough chars in this buffer? wait for more ...
+      return;
+    }
+
+    // get the character that was split
+    charStr = this.charBuffer.slice(0, this.charLength).toString();
+    this.charReceived = this.charLength = 0;
+
+    if (i == buffer.length) {
+      // if there are no more bytes in this buffer, just emit our char
+      this.onString(charStr)
+      return;
+    }
+
+    // otherwise cut of the characters end from the beginning of this buffer
+    buffer = buffer.slice(i, buffer.length);
+  }
+
+
+  // determine how many bytes we have to check at the end of this buffer
+  var i = (buffer.length >= 3)
+    ? 3
+    : buffer.length;
+
+  // figure out if one of the last i bytes of our buffer announces an incomplete char
+  for (; i > 0; i--) {
+    c = buffer[buffer.length - i];
+
+    // See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Description
+
+    // 110XXXXX
+    if (i == 1 && c >> 5 == 0x06) {
+      this.charLength = 2;
+      break;
+    }
+
+    // 1110XXXX
+    if (i <= 2 && c >> 4 == 0x0E) {
+      this.charLength = 3;
+      break;
+    }
+
+    // 11110XXX
+    if (i <= 3 && c >> 3 == 0x1E) {
+      this.charLength = 4;
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (!this.charLength) {
+    // no incomplete char at the end of this buffer, emit the whole thing
+    this.onString(charStr+buffer.toString());
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // buffer the incomplete character bytes we got
+  buffer.copy(this.charBuffer, 0, buffer.length - i, buffer.length);
+  this.charReceived = i;
+
+  if (buffer.length - i > 0) {
+    // buffer had more bytes before the incomplete char, emit them
+    this.onString(charStr+buffer.slice(0, buffer.length - i).toString());
+  } else if (charStr) {
+    // or just emit the charStr if any
+    this.onString(charStr);
+  }
+};
diff --git a/src/node.cc b/src/node.cc
index d22057930f..4cff11bd85 100644
--- a/src/node.cc
+++ b/src/node.cc
@@ -1820,6 +1820,7 @@ static Handle<Value> Binding(const Arguments& args) {
       exports->Set(String::New("utils"),        String::New(native_utils));
       exports->Set(String::New("path"),         String::New(native_path));
       exports->Set(String::New("module"),       String::New(native_module));
+      exports->Set(String::New("utf8decoder"),  String::New(native_utf8decoder));
       binding_cache->Set(module, exports);
     }
 
diff --git a/test/simple/test-utf8-decoder.js b/test/simple/test-utf8-decoder.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fc15f224ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/simple/test-utf8-decoder.js
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+require('../common');
+var Utf8Decoder = require('utf8decoder').Utf8Decoder,
+    Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer,
+    decoder = new Utf8Decoder(),
+    buffer,
+    onStringCalled = 0;
+
+decoder.onString = function(str) {
+  onStringCalled++;
+  assert.deepEqual(str, buffer.toString());
+};
+
+buffer = new Buffer('$');
+decoder.write(buffer);
+assert.equal(onStringCalled, 1);
+
+buffer = new Buffer('¢');
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(0, 1));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(1, 2));
+assert.equal(onStringCalled, 2);
+
+buffer = new Buffer('€');
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(0, 1));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(1, 2));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(2, 3));
+assert.equal(onStringCalled, 3);
+
+buffer = new Buffer([0xF0, 0xA4, 0xAD, 0xA2]);
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(0, 1));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(1, 2));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(2, 3));
+decoder.write(buffer.slice(3, 4));
+assert.equal(onStringCalled, 4);
+
+// A mixed ascii and non-ascii string
+// Test stolen from deps/v8/test/cctest/test-strings.cc
+// U+02E4 -> CB A4
+// U+0064 -> 64
+// U+12E4 -> E1 8B A4
+// U+0030 -> 30
+// U+3045 -> E3 81 85
+expected = "\u02e4\u0064\u12e4\u0030\u3045";
+buffer = new Buffer([0xCB, 0xA4, 0x64, 0xE1, 0x8B, 0xA4, 0x30, 0xE3, 0x81, 0x85]);
+charLengths = [0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5];
+
+// Split the buffer into 3 segments
+//  |----|------|-------|
+//  0    i      j       buffer.length
+// Scan through every possible 3 segment combination
+// and make sure that the string is always parsed.
+print('scanning ');
+for (var j = 2; j < buffer.length; j++) {
+  for (var i = 1; i < j; i++) {
+    var decoder = new Utf8Decoder();
+    var sum = "";
+    decoder.onString = function (s) { sum += s; };
+
+    decoder.write(buffer.slice(0, i));
+
+    // just check that we've received the right amount
+    // after the first write
+    assert.equal(charLengths[i], sum.length);
+
+    decoder.write(buffer.slice(i, j));
+    decoder.write(buffer.slice(j, buffer.length));
+    assert.equal(expected, sum);
+    print(".");
+  }
+}
+puts(" crayon!");
+