diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalbooks.cpp b/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalbooks.cpp
index 3b1463b45..68b1d8403 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalbooks.cpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalbooks.cpp
@@ -239,16 +239,13 @@ BookTypesetter::Ptr JournalBooks::createLatinJournalIndex ()
     {
         char ch = 'A' + i;
         char buffer [32];
-
         sprintf (buffer, "( %c )", ch);
 
         char buffer2 [32];
         sprintf(buffer2, "%c", ch);
-        const char * c = buffer2;
-        Utf8Stream stream ((unsigned char*) c,(unsigned char*) c + strlen(c));
+        Utf8Stream stream (buffer2);
         uint32_t first = stream.peek();
 
-        // TODO: find a way to store a multibyte character in the InteractiveId (this is a intptr_t)
         const MWGui::TextColours& textColours = MWBase::Environment::get().getWindowManager()->getTextColours();
         BookTypesetter::Style* style = typesetter->createHotStyle (body, textColours.journalTopic,
                                                                    textColours.journalTopicOver,
@@ -274,13 +271,12 @@ BookTypesetter::Ptr JournalBooks::createCyrillicJournalIndex ()
     for (int i = 0; i < 32; ++i)
     {
         char buffer [32];
-
         sprintf(buffer, "( %c%c )", 0xd0, 0x90 + i); // CYRILLIC CAPITAL A is a 0xd090 in UTF-8
 
         char buffer2 [32];
         sprintf(buffer2, "%c%c", 0xd0, 0x90 + i);
-        const char * c = buffer2;
-        Utf8Stream stream ((unsigned char*) c,(unsigned char*) c + strlen(c));
+
+        Utf8Stream stream (buffer2);
         uint32_t first = stream.peek();
 
         const MWGui::TextColours& textColours = MWBase::Environment::get().getWindowManager()->getTextColours();
diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalviewmodel.cpp b/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalviewmodel.cpp
index 3f8992e31..d7b233ff3 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalviewmodel.cpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwgui/journalviewmodel.cpp
@@ -313,8 +313,7 @@ struct JournalViewModelImpl : JournalViewModel
 
         for (MWBase::Journal::TTopicIter i = journal->topicBegin (); i != journal->topicEnd (); ++i)
         {
-            const char * c = i->first.c_str();
-            Utf8Stream stream ((unsigned char*) c,(unsigned char*) c + strlen(c));
+            Utf8Stream stream (i->first.c_str());
             uint32_t first = Misc::StringUtils::toUpper(stream.peek());
 
             if (first != character)
diff --git a/components/misc/stringops.hpp b/components/misc/stringops.hpp
index 5ce5360d1..cec2a34a4 100644
--- a/components/misc/stringops.hpp
+++ b/components/misc/stringops.hpp
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ public:
 
     static uint32_t toUpper(uint32_t ch)
     {
-        // Russian alphabete
+        // Russian alphabet
         if (ch >= 0x0430 && ch < 0x0450)
             ch -= 0x20;
 
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ public:
         if (ch == 0x0451)
             ch -= 0x50;
 
-        // Latin alphabete
+        // Latin alphabet
         if (ch >= 0x61 && ch < 0x80)
             ch -= 0x20;
 
diff --git a/components/misc/utf8stream.hpp b/components/misc/utf8stream.hpp
index 760015902..368374a64 100644
--- a/components/misc/utf8stream.hpp
+++ b/components/misc/utf8stream.hpp
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ public:
     {
     }
 
+    Utf8Stream (const char * str) :
+        cur ((unsigned char*) str), nxt ((unsigned char*) str), end ((unsigned char*) str + strlen(str)), val(Utf8Stream::sBadChar())
+    {
+    }
+
     Utf8Stream (std::pair <Point, Point> range) :
         cur (range.first), nxt (range.first), end (range.second), val(Utf8Stream::sBadChar())
     {