diff --git a/src/pl/plpython/plpy_elog.c b/src/pl/plpython/plpy_elog.c
new file mode 100644
index c375ac0..c2b3cb8
*** a/src/pl/plpython/plpy_elog.c
--- b/src/pl/plpython/plpy_elog.c
*************** static char *get_source_line(const char
*** 28,33 ****
--- 28,41 ----
  
  
  /*
+  * Guard agains re-entrant calls to PLy_traceback, which can happen if
+  * traceback formatting functions raise Python errors.
+  */
+ #define TRACEBACK_RECURSION_LIMIT 2
+ static int	recursion_depth = 0;
+ 
+ 
+ /*
   * Emit a PG error or notice, together with any available info about
   * the current Python error, previously set by PLy_exception_set().
   * This should be used to propagate Python errors into PG.	If fmt is
*************** PLy_traceback(char **xmsg, char **tbmsg,
*** 147,166 ****
  	StringInfoData xstr;
  	StringInfoData tbstr;
  
  	/*
  	 * get the current exception
  	 */
  	PyErr_Fetch(&e, &v, &tb);
  
  	/*
! 	 * oops, no exception, return
  	 */
! 	if (e == NULL)
  	{
  		*xmsg = NULL;
  		*tbmsg = NULL;
  		*tb_depth = 0;
  
  		return;
  	}
  
--- 155,177 ----
  	StringInfoData xstr;
  	StringInfoData tbstr;
  
+ 	recursion_depth++;
+ 
  	/*
  	 * get the current exception
  	 */
  	PyErr_Fetch(&e, &v, &tb);
  
  	/*
! 	 * oops, no exception or recursion depth exceeded, return
  	 */
! 	if (e == NULL || recursion_depth > TRACEBACK_RECURSION_LIMIT)
  	{
  		*xmsg = NULL;
  		*tbmsg = NULL;
  		*tb_depth = 0;
  
+ 		recursion_depth--;
  		return;
  	}
  
*************** PLy_traceback(char **xmsg, char **tbmsg,
*** 326,331 ****
--- 337,344 ----
  		(*tb_depth)++;
  	}
  
+ 	recursion_depth--;
+ 
  	/* Return the traceback. */
  	*tbmsg = tbstr.data;
  
diff --git a/src/pl/plpython/plpy_util.c b/src/pl/plpython/plpy_util.c
new file mode 100644
index 4aabafc..fe43312
*** a/src/pl/plpython/plpy_util.c
--- b/src/pl/plpython/plpy_util.c
*************** PLy_free(void *ptr)
*** 61,126 ****
  PyObject *
  PLyUnicode_Bytes(PyObject *unicode)
  {
! 	PyObject   *rv;
! 	const char *serverenc;
  
! 	/*
! 	 * Map PostgreSQL encoding to a Python encoding name.
! 	 */
! 	switch (GetDatabaseEncoding())
  	{
! 		case PG_SQL_ASCII:
! 			/*
! 			 * Mapping SQL_ASCII to Python's 'ascii' is a bit bogus. Python's
! 			 * 'ascii' means true 7-bit only ASCII, while PostgreSQL's
! 			 * SQL_ASCII means that anything is allowed, and the system doesn't
! 			 * try to interpret the bytes in any way. But not sure what else
! 			 * to do, and we haven't heard any complaints...
! 			 */
! 			serverenc = "ascii";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1250:
! 			serverenc = "cp1250";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1251:
! 			serverenc = "cp1251";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1252:
! 			serverenc = "cp1252";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1253:
! 			serverenc = "cp1253";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1254:
! 			serverenc = "cp1254";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1255:
! 			serverenc = "cp1255";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1256:
! 			serverenc = "cp1256";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1257:
! 			serverenc = "cp1257";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN1258:
! 			serverenc = "cp1258";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN866:
! 			serverenc = "cp866";
! 			break;
! 		case PG_WIN874:
! 			serverenc = "cp874";
! 			break;
! 		default:
! 			/* Other encodings have the same name in Python. */
! 			serverenc = GetDatabaseEncodingName();
! 			break;
  	}
  
! 	rv = PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(unicode, serverenc, "strict");
! 	if (rv == NULL)
! 		PLy_elog(ERROR, "could not convert Python Unicode object to PostgreSQL server encoding");
  	return rv;
  }
  
--- 61,96 ----
  PyObject *
  PLyUnicode_Bytes(PyObject *unicode)
  {
! 	PyObject	*bytes, *rv;
! 	char		*utf8string, *encoded;
  
! 	/* first encode the Python unicode object with UTF-8 */
! 	bytes = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(unicode);
! 	if (bytes == NULL)
! 		PLy_elog(ERROR, "could not convert Python Unicode object to bytes");
! 
! 	utf8string = PyBytes_AsString(bytes);
! 	if (utf8string == NULL) {
! 		Py_DECREF(bytes);
! 		PLy_elog(ERROR, "could not extract bytes from encoded string");
! 	}
! 
! 	/* then convert to server encoding */
! 	encoded = (char *) pg_do_encoding_conversion((unsigned char *) utf8string,
! 												 strlen(utf8string),
! 												 PG_UTF8,
! 												 GetDatabaseEncoding());
! 
! 	/* finally, build a bytes object in the server encoding */
! 	rv = PyBytes_FromStringAndSize(encoded, strlen(encoded));
! 
! 	/* if pg_do_encoding_conversion allocated memory, free it now */
! 	if (utf8string != encoded)
  	{
! 		pfree(encoded);
  	}
  
! 	Py_DECREF(bytes);
  	return rv;
  }