diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 2e74234e4..32a8aff91 100755
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ gem "json" # Ruby license
 #gem "awesome_print" # MIT License
 gem "jruby-openssl", :platforms => :jruby # For enabling SSL support, CPL/GPL 2.0
 gem "mail" #outputs/email, # License: MIT License
+gem "xml-simple" # unknown license: http://xml-simple.rubyforge.org/
 
 gem "minitest" # License: Ruby
 gem "rack" # License: MIT
diff --git a/lib/logstash/filters/xml.rb b/lib/logstash/filters/xml.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f6693f3ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/logstash/filters/xml.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+require "logstash/filters/base"
+require "logstash/namespace"
+require "xmlsimple"
+require "rexml/document"
+include REXML
+
+# XML filter. Takes a field that contains XML and expands it into
+# an actual datastructure.
+class LogStash::Filters::Xml < LogStash::Filters::Base
+
+  config_name "xml"
+  plugin_status "experimental"
+
+  # Config for xml to hash is:
+  #
+  #   source => dest
+  #
+  # XML in the value of the source field will be expanded into a
+  # datastructure in the "dest" field. Note: if the "dest" field
+  # already exists, it will be overridden.
+  config /[A-Za-z0-9_-]+/, :validate => :string
+
+  # xpath will additionally select string values (.to_s on whatever is selected)
+  # from parsed XML (using each source field defined using the method above)
+  # and place those values in the destination fields. Configuration:
+  #
+  # xpath => [ "xpath-syntax", "destination-field" ]
+  #
+  # Values returned by XPath parsring from xpath-synatx will be put in the 
+  # destination field. Multiple values returned will be pushed onto the
+  # destination field as an array. As such, multiple matches across
+  # multiple source fields will produce duplicate entries in the field
+  #
+  # More on xpath: http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/
+  # 
+  # The xpath functions are particularly powerful:
+  # http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_functions.asp
+  # 
+  config :xpath, :validate => :hash, :default => {}
+
+  # By default the filter will store the whole parsed xml in the destination
+  # field as described above. Setting this to false will prevent that.
+  config :store_xml, :validate => :boolean, :default => true
+
+  public
+  def register
+    @xml = {}
+
+    @config.each do |field, dest|
+      next if ( RESERVED + ["xpath","store_xml"] ).member?(field)
+
+      @xml[field] = dest
+    end
+  end # def register
+
+  public
+  def filter(event)
+    return unless filter?(event)
+
+    matched = false
+
+    @logger.debug("Running xml filter", :event => event)
+
+    @xml.each do |key, dest|
+      if event.fields[key]
+        if event.fields[key].is_a?(String)
+          event.fields[key] = [event.fields[key]]
+        end
+
+        if event.fields[key].length > 1
+          @logger.warn("XML filter only works on fields of length 1",
+                       :key => key, :value => event.fields[key])
+          next
+        end
+
+        raw = event.fields[key].first
+
+        # for some reason, an empty string is considered valid XML
+        next if raw.strip.length == 0
+
+        if @xpath
+          begin
+            doc = Document.new(raw)
+          rescue => e
+            event.tags << "_xmlparsefailure"
+            @logger.warn("Trouble parsing xml with REXML::Document", :key => key, :raw => raw,
+                          :exception => e, :backtrace => e.backtrace)
+            next
+          end
+
+          @xpath.each do |xpath_src, xpath_dest|
+
+            XPath.each(doc, xpath_src).each do |value|
+              # some XPath functions return empty arrays as string
+              if value.is_a?(Array)
+                next if value.length == 0
+              end
+
+              unless value.nil?
+                matched = true
+                event[xpath_dest] ||= []
+                event[xpath_dest] << value.to_s
+              end
+            end
+          end
+        end
+
+        if @store_xml
+          begin
+            event[dest] = XmlSimple.xml_in(raw)
+            matched = true
+          rescue => e
+            event.tags << "_xmlparsefailure"
+            @logger.warn("Trouble parsing xml with XmlSimple", :key => key, :raw => raw,
+                          :exception => e, :backtrace => e.backtrace)
+            next
+          end
+        end
+
+        filter_matched(event) if matched
+
+      end
+    end
+
+    @logger.debug("Event after xml filter", :event => event)
+  end # def filter
+end # class LogStash::Filters::Xml
diff --git a/test/logstash/filters/test_xml.rb b/test/logstash/filters/test_xml.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..aba2b2fae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/logstash/filters/test_xml.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+require "rubygems"
+require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "minitest")
+
+require "logstash/loadlibs"
+require "logstash"
+require "logstash/filters"
+require "logstash/filters/xml"
+require "logstash/event"
+
+describe LogStash::Filters::Xml do
+  before do
+    @filter = LogStash::Filters.from_name("xml", {})
+    @typename = "xml"
+  end
+
+  def config(cfg)
+    cfg["type"] = @typename
+    cfg.each_key do |key|
+      if cfg[key].is_a?(String)
+        cfg[key] = [cfg[key]]
+      end
+    end
+
+    @filter = LogStash::Filters::Xml.new(cfg)
+    @filter.register
+  end # def config
+
+  test "parse standard xml" do
+    config "raw" => "data"
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo key="value"/>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["data"], {"key" => "value"})
+  end # parse standard xml
+
+  test "parse xml but do not store" do
+    config "raw" => "data",
+           "store_xml" => "false"
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo key="value"/>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["data"], nil)
+  end # parse xml but do not store
+
+  test "parse xml with array as a value" do
+    config "raw" => "data"
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo><key>value1</key><key>value2</key></foo>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["data"], {"key" => ["value1", "value2"]})
+  end # parse xml with array as a value
+
+  test "parse xml with hash as a value" do
+    config "raw" => "data"
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo><key1><key2>value</key2></key1></foo>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["data"], {"key1" => [{"key2" => ["value"]}]})
+  end # parse xml with array as a value
+
+  test "bad xml" do
+    config "raw" => "data"
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo /'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event.tags, ["_xmlparsefailure"])
+  end # bad xml
+
+  test "parse xml and store single value with xpath" do
+    config "raw" => "data",
+           "xpath" => [ "/foo/key/text()", "xpath_field" ]
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo><key>value</key></foo>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["xpath_field"].length, 1)
+    assert_equal(event["xpath_field"], ["value"])
+  end # parse xml and store single value with xpath
+
+  test "parse xml and store mulitple values with xpath" do
+    config "raw" => "data",
+           "xpath" => [ "/foo/key/text()", "xpath_field" ]
+
+    event = LogStash::Event.new
+    event.type = @typename
+    event["raw"] = '<foo><key>value1</key><key>value2</key></foo>'
+    @filter.filter(event)
+    assert_equal(event["xpath_field"].length, 2)
+    assert_equal(event["xpath_field"], ["value1","value2"])
+  end # parse xml and store mulitple values with xpath
+
+end # Test 'xml' filter