diff --git a/nquads/actions.rl b/nquads/actions.rl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a53fc93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nquads/actions.rl
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+// Copyright 2014 The Cayley Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+%%{
+	machine quads;
+
+	action Escape {
+		isEscaped = true
+	}
+
+	action StartSubject {
+		subject = p
+	}
+
+	action StartPredicate {
+		predicate = p
+	}
+
+	action StartObject {
+		object = p
+	}
+
+	action StartLabel {
+		label = p
+	}
+
+	action SetSubject {
+		if subject < 0 {
+			panic("unexpected parser state: subject start not set")
+		}
+		triple.Subject = unEscape(data[subject:p], isEscaped)
+		isEscaped = false
+	}
+
+	action SetPredicate {
+		if predicate < 0 {
+			panic("unexpected parser state: predicate start not set")
+		}
+		triple.Predicate = unEscape(data[predicate:p], isEscaped)
+		isEscaped = false
+	}
+
+	action SetObject {
+		if object < 0 {
+			panic("unexpected parser state: object start not set")
+		}
+		triple.Object = unEscape(data[object:p], isEscaped)
+		isEscaped = false
+	}
+
+	action SetLabel {
+		if label < 0 {
+			panic("unexpected parser state: label start not set")
+		}
+		triple.Provenance = unEscape(data[label:p], isEscaped)
+		isEscaped = false
+	}
+
+	action Return {
+		return triple, nil
+	}
+
+	action Comment {
+	}
+
+	action Error {
+		if p < len(data) {
+			return graph.Triple{}, fmt.Errorf("%v: unexpected rune %q at %d", ErrInvalid, data[p], p)
+		}
+		return graph.Triple{}, ErrIncomplete
+	}
+}%%
diff --git a/nquads/nquads.rl b/nquads/nquads.rl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ca056c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nquads/nquads.rl
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+// Copyright 2014 The Cayley Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+// Ragel gramar definition derived from http://www.w3.org/TR/n-quads/#sec-grammar.
+
+%%{
+	machine quads;
+
+	alphtype rune;
+
+	PN_CHARS_BASE           = [A-Za-z]
+							| 0x00c0 .. 0x00d6
+							| 0x00d8 .. 0x00f6
+							| 0x00f8 .. 0x02ff
+							| 0x0370 .. 0x037d
+							| 0x037f .. 0x1fff
+							| 0x200c .. 0x200d
+							| 0x2070 .. 0x218f
+							| 0x2c00 .. 0x2fef
+							| 0x3001 .. 0xd7ff
+							| 0xf900 .. 0xfdcf
+							| 0xfdf0 .. 0xfffd
+							| 0x10000 .. 0x1efff
+							;
+
+	PN_CHARS_U              = PN_CHARS_BASE | '_' | ':' ;
+
+	PN_CHARS                = PN_CHARS_U
+							| '-'
+							| [0-9]
+							| 0xb7
+							| 0x0300 .. 0x036f
+							| 0x203f .. 0x2040
+							;
+
+	ECHAR                   = ('\\' [tbnrf"'\\]) %Escape ;
+
+	UCHAR                   = ('\\u' xdigit {4}
+							| '\\U' xdigit {8}) %Escape
+							;
+
+	BLANK_NODE_LABEL        = '_:' (PN_CHARS_U | [0-9]) ((PN_CHARS | '.')* PN_CHARS)? ;
+
+	STRING_LITERAL_QUOTE    = '"' (
+							  0x00 .. 0x09
+							| 0x0b .. 0x0c
+							| 0x0e .. '!'
+							| '#' .. '['
+							| ']' .. '~'
+							| ECHAR | UCHAR)*
+							  '"'
+							;
+
+	IRIREF                  = '<' (
+							  '!' .. ';'
+							| '='
+							| '?' .. '['
+							| ']'
+							| '_'
+							| 'a' .. 'z'
+							| '~' | UCHAR)*
+							  '>'
+							;
+
+	LANGTAG                 = '@' [a-zA-Z]+ ('-' [a-zA-Z0-9]+)* ;
+
+	whitespace              = [ \t] ;
+
+	literal                 = STRING_LITERAL_QUOTE ('^^' IRIREF | LANGTAG)? ;
+
+	subject                 = IRIREF | BLANK_NODE_LABEL ;
+	predicate               = IRIREF ;
+	object                  = IRIREF | BLANK_NODE_LABEL | literal ;
+	graphLabel              = IRIREF | BLANK_NODE_LABEL ;
+
+	statement := (
+					whitespace*  subject    >StartSubject   %SetSubject
+					whitespace+  predicate  >StartPredicate %SetPredicate
+					whitespace+  object     >StartObject    %SetObject
+					(whitespace+ graphLabel >StartLabel     %SetLabel)?
+					whitespace*  '.' whitespace* ('#' any*)? >Comment
+				 ) %Return @!Error ;
+}%%
diff --git a/nquads/parse.rl b/nquads/parse.rl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb97e25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nquads/parse.rl
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+// GO SOURCE FILE MACHINE GENERATED BY RAGEL; DO NOT EDIT
+
+// Copyright 2014 The Cayley Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package nquads
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"strconv"
+
+	"github.com/google/cayley/graph"
+)
+
+var (
+	ErrInvalid    = errors.New("invalid N-Quad")
+	ErrIncomplete = errors.New("incomplete N-Quad")
+)
+
+%%{
+	machine quads;
+
+	include "actions.rl";
+
+	include "nquads.rl";
+
+	write data;
+}%%
+
+func parse(data []rune) (graph.Triple, error) {
+	var (
+		cs, p int
+		pe    = len(data)
+		eof   = pe
+
+		subject   = -1
+		predicate = -1
+		object    = -1
+		label     = -1
+
+		isEscaped bool
+
+		triple graph.Triple
+	)
+
+	%%write init;
+
+	%%write exec;
+
+	return graph.Triple{}, ErrInvalid
+}
+
+func unEscape(r []rune, isEscaped bool) string {
+	if !isEscaped {
+		return string(r)
+	}
+
+	buf := bytes.NewBuffer(make([]byte, 0, len(r)))
+
+	for i := 0; i < len(r); {
+		switch r[i] {
+		case '\\':
+			i++
+			var c byte
+			switch r[i] {
+			case 't':
+				c = '\t'
+			case 'b':
+				c = '\b'
+			case 'n':
+				c = '\n'
+			case 'r':
+				c = '\r'
+			case 'f':
+				c = '\f'
+			case '"':
+				c = '"'
+			case '\'':
+				c = '\''
+			case '\\':
+				c = '\\'
+			case 'u':
+				rc, err := strconv.ParseInt(string(r[i+1:i+5]), 16, 32)
+				if err != nil {
+					panic(fmt.Errorf("internal parser error: %v", err))
+				}
+				buf.WriteRune(rune(rc))
+				i += 5
+				continue
+			case 'U':
+				rc, err := strconv.ParseInt(string(r[i+1:i+9]), 16, 32)
+				if err != nil {
+					panic(fmt.Errorf("internal parser error: %v", err))
+				}
+				buf.WriteRune(rune(rc))
+				i += 9
+				continue
+			}
+			buf.WriteByte(c)
+		default:
+			buf.WriteRune(r[i])
+		}
+		i++
+	}
+
+	return buf.String()
+}