diff --git a/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish b/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
index bb836dc99..ebd89685c 100644
--- a/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
+++ b/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
@@ -22,7 +22,13 @@ function __fish_print_help --description "Print help message for the specified f
     end
 
     # Pick which command we are using to render output or fail if none
-    if command -qs nroff
+    # We prefer mandoc because that doesn't break with unicode input.
+    if command -qs mandoc
+        set format mandoc -c
+        if test -n "$cols"
+            set -a format -O width=$cols
+        end
+    else if command -qs nroff
         set format nroff -c -man -t
         if test -e $__fish_data_dir/groff/fish.tmac
             set -a format -M$__fish_data_dir/groff -mfish
@@ -30,20 +36,26 @@ function __fish_print_help --description "Print help message for the specified f
         if test -n "$cols"
             set -a format -rLL={$cols}n
         end
-    else if command -qs mandoc
-        set format mandoc -c
-        if test -n "$cols"
-            set -a format -O width=$cols
-        end
     else
         echo fish: (_ "Cannot format help; no parser found")
         return 1
     end
 
     if test -e "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1"
-        set help ($format "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1" 2>/dev/null)
+        # Some nroff versions screw up non-ascii characters.
+        # (even with the locale set correctly!)
+        # Work around that by running preconv first.
+        if command -sq preconv; and test "$format[1]" = nroff
+            set help (preconv -e UTF-8 "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1" | $format 2>/dev/null)
+        else
+            set help ($format "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1" 2>/dev/null)
+        end
     else if test -e "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1.gz"
-        set help (gunzip -c "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1.gz" 2>/dev/null | $format 2>/dev/null)
+        if command -sq preconv; and test "$format[1]" = nroff
+            set help (gunzip -c "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1.gz" 2>/dev/null | preconv -e UTF-8 | $format 2>/dev/null)
+        else
+            set help (gunzip -c "$__fish_data_dir/man/man1/$item.1.gz" 2>/dev/null | $format 2>/dev/null)
+        end
     end
 
     # The original implementation trimmed off the top 5 lines and bottom 3 lines