diff --git a/llvm/_core.c b/llvm/_core.c
index d91f6fa..50790bb 100644
--- a/llvm/_core.c
+++ b/llvm/_core.c
@@ -42,15 +42,14 @@ _wrap_dumper(LLVMDumpModuleToString, LLVMModuleRef)
 static PyObject *
 _wLLVMVerifyModule(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
 {
-    PyObject *obj;
-    char *outmsg = 0;
+    char *outmsg;
     PyObject *ret;
     LLVMModuleRef m;
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &obj))
+    if (!(m = (LLVMModuleRef)get_object_arg(args)))
         return NULL;
 
-    m = (LLVMModuleRef) PyCObject_AsVoidPtr(obj);
+    outmsg = 0;
     (void) LLVMVerifyModule(m, LLVMReturnStatusAction, &outmsg);
 
     if (outmsg) {
@@ -63,6 +62,53 @@ _wLLVMVerifyModule(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
     return ret;
 }
 
+static PyObject *
+_wLLVMGetModuleFromBitcode(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+{
+    PyObject *obj, *ret;
+    Py_ssize_t len;
+    char *start, *outmsg;
+    LLVMModuleRef m;
+
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &obj))
+        return NULL;
+
+    start = PyString_AsString(obj);
+    len = PyString_Size(obj);
+
+    outmsg = 0;
+    m = LLVMGetModuleFromBitcode(start, len, &outmsg);
+    if (!m) {
+        if (outmsg) {
+            ret = PyString_FromString(outmsg);
+            LLVMDisposeMessage(outmsg);
+            return ret;
+        } else {
+            Py_RETURN_NONE;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return ctor_LLVMModuleRef(m);
+}
+
+static PyObject *
+_wLLVMGetBitcodeFromModule(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+{
+    PyObject *ret;
+    unsigned len;
+    unsigned char *bytes;
+    LLVMModuleRef m;
+
+    if (!(m = (LLVMModuleRef)get_object_arg(args)))
+        return NULL;
+
+    if (!(bytes = LLVMGetBitcodeFromModule(m, &len)))
+        Py_RETURN_NONE;
+
+    ret = PyString_FromStringAndSize((char *)bytes, (Py_ssize_t)len);
+    LLVMDisposeMessage((char *)bytes);
+    return ret;
+}
 
 /*===----------------------------------------------------------------------===*/
 /* Types                                                                      */
@@ -805,6 +851,8 @@ static PyMethodDef core_methods[] = {
     _method( LLVMDisposeModule )
     _method( LLVMDumpModuleToString )
     _method( LLVMVerifyModule )
+    _method( LLVMGetModuleFromBitcode )
+    _method( LLVMGetBitcodeFromModule )
 
     /* Types */
 
diff --git a/llvm/core.py b/llvm/core.py
index 2161fef..4afb2fc 100644
--- a/llvm/core.py
+++ b/llvm/core.py
@@ -721,6 +721,20 @@ class Module(llvm.Ownable):
         """
         return Module(_core.LLVMModuleCreateWithName(id))
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def from_bitcode(fileobj):
+        """Create a Module instance from the contents of a bitcode
+        file."""
+
+        data = fileobj.read()
+        ret = _core.LLVMGetModuleFromBitcode(data)
+        if not ret:
+            raise llvm.LLVMException, "Unable to create module from bitcode"
+        elif isinstance(ret, str):
+            raise llvm.LLVMException, ret
+        else:
+            return Module(ret)
+
     def __init__(self, ptr):
         """DO NOT CALL DIRECTLY.
 
@@ -837,6 +851,15 @@ class Module(llvm.Ownable):
         if ret != "":
             raise llvm.LLVMException, ret
 
+    def to_bitcode(self, fileobj):
+        """Write bitcode representation of module to given file-like
+        object."""
+
+        data = _core.LLVMGetBitcodeFromModule(self.ptr)
+        if not data:
+            raise llvm.LLVMException, "Unable to create bitcode"
+        fileobj.write(data)
+
 
 #===----------------------------------------------------------------------===
 # Types
diff --git a/llvm/extra.cpp b/llvm/extra.cpp
index 7f22998..4596fa9 100644
--- a/llvm/extra.cpp
+++ b/llvm/extra.cpp
@@ -4,7 +4,13 @@
  * Python bindings.
  */
 
+#include <cassert>
+#include <cstdlib>
+#include <cstring>
+#include <sstream>
+
 #include "llvm/Bitcode/ReaderWriter.h"
+#include "llvm/Support/MemoryBuffer.h"
 #include "llvm/Constants.h"
 #include "llvm/DerivedTypes.h"
 #include "llvm/GlobalVariable.h"
@@ -13,13 +19,10 @@
 #include "llvm/Support/MemoryBuffer.h"
 #include "llvm/Support/CallSite.h"
 #include "llvm/IntrinsicInst.h"
-#include <cassert>
-#include <cstdlib>
-#include <cstring>
-#include <sstream>
+#include "llvm/Analysis/Verifier.h"
 
 #include "llvm-c/Core.h"
-#include "llvm/Analysis/Verifier.h"
+
 #include "extra.h"
 
 using namespace llvm;
@@ -99,3 +102,32 @@ LLVMValueRef LLVMGetIntrinsic(LLVMModuleRef M, int ID,
     return wrap(intfunc);
 }
 
+LLVMModuleRef LLVMGetModuleFromBitcode(const char *BC, unsigned Len,
+                                       char **OutMessage)
+{
+    MemoryBuffer *mb = MemoryBuffer::getMemBufferCopy(BC, BC+Len);
+    if (!mb)
+        return NULL;
+
+    std::string msg;
+    LLVMModuleRef mr = wrap(ParseBitcodeFile(mb, &msg));
+    if (!mr)
+        *OutMessage = strdup(msg.c_str());
+
+    delete mb;
+    return mr;
+}
+
+unsigned char *LLVMGetBitcodeFromModule(LLVMModuleRef M, unsigned *Len)
+{
+    std::ostringstream buf;
+    WriteBitcodeToFile(unwrap(M), buf);
+    const std::string& s = buf.str();
+    size_t len = s.size();
+    unsigned char *bytes = (unsigned char *)malloc(len);
+    if (!bytes)
+        return NULL;
+    memcpy(bytes, s.data(), len);
+    *Len = len;
+    return bytes;
+}
diff --git a/llvm/extra.h b/llvm/extra.h
index 6c2fd37..c90f93a 100644
--- a/llvm/extra.h
+++ b/llvm/extra.h
@@ -47,7 +47,11 @@ LLVMValueRef LLVMBuildGetResult(LLVMBuilderRef, LLVMValueRef V,
                                 unsigned Index, const char *Name);
 
 LLVMValueRef LLVMGetIntrinsic(LLVMModuleRef B, int ID,
-    LLVMTypeRef *Types, unsigned Count);
+                              LLVMTypeRef *Types, unsigned Count);
+
+LLVMModuleRef LLVMGetModuleFromBitcode(const char *BC, unsigned Len,
+                                       char **OutMessage);
+unsigned char *LLVMGetBitcodeFromModule(LLVMModuleRef M, unsigned *Len);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 } /* extern "C" */
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 494d413..acf36f5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def call_setup(llvm_config):
     ldflags     = _run(llvm_config + ' --ldflags')
     libs_core, objs_core = get_libs_and_objs(llvm_config,
         ['core', 'analysis', 'scalaropts', 'executionengine', 
-         'jit',  'native', 'interpreter'])
+         'jit',  'native', 'interpreter', 'bitreader', 'bitwriter'])
 
     std_libs    = [ 'pthread', 'm' ]
     if not sys.platform.startswith("openbsd"):