diff --git a/doc/hoxsl.texi b/doc/hoxsl.texi
index eb1a7d8..4bf67a6 100644
--- a/doc/hoxsl.texi
+++ b/doc/hoxsl.texi
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
 @copying
 This manual is for hoxsl, version @value{VERSION}.
 
-Copyright @copyright{} 2014 LoVullo Associates, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 2014, 2015 LoVullo Associates, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 2015 Mike Gerwitz
 
 @quotation
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ Free Documentation License".
 
 @menu
 * Higher-Order Functions::  XSLT 2.0 compatible higher-order functions
+* Node Constructors::       Constructing nodes functionally
 * License::                 Document License
 @end menu
 
@@ -57,6 +59,10 @@ Free Documentation License".
 @chapter Higher-Order Functions
 @include ../src/apply.texi
 
+@node Node Constructors
+@chapter Node Constructors
+@include ../src/node.texi
+
 @include license.texi
 
 @bye
diff --git a/src/node.xsl b/src/node.xsl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55fe689
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/node.xsl
@@ -0,0 +1,209 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<!--@comment
+  Node constructors
+
+  Copyright (C) 2015 Mike Gerwitz
+
+    This file is part of hoxsl.
+
+    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+-->
+
+<stylesheet version="2.0"
+            xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+            xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
+            xmlns:n="http://www.lovullo.com/hoxsl/node"
+            xmlns:_n="http://www.lovullo.com/hoxsl/node/_priv">
+
+<!--
+  Function composition becomes a frustrating endeavor if nodes cannot be
+  constructed within an expression.  For example, to create an element
+  to pass to a function @code{foo}, the only option with vanilla XSLT is to
+  use a variable to hold that element:
+
+  @example
+    <variable name="element" as="element( bar )">
+      <bar baz="quux" />
+    </variable>
+
+    <sequence select="foo( $element )" />
+  @end example
+
+  This easily interrupts pipelines or results in functions whose sole
+  purpose is to create specific nodes for the sake of composition.
+
+  Hoxsl provides constructors for nodes that fit cleanly into a
+  functional system.
+
+  @menu
+  * Primitive Constructors::  Functional equivalents of XSLT node primitives
+  * Private Functions:Node Private Functions.  Internal details
+  @end menu
+
+
+  @node Primitive Constructors
+  @section Primitive Constructors
+  The constructors in this section can be thought of as primitives
+  corresponding to their XSLT node-based counterparts: @code{xsl:element},
+  @code{xsl:text}, and @code{xsl:comment}.  They can be arbitrarily nested
+  to create tree structures.
+
+  @float Figure, fig:node-primitive
+  @verbatim
+    <sequence select="n:element( QName( 'ns', 'foo' ),
+                                 ( QName( 'ns', 'attr1' ), 'value1',
+                                   QName( 'ns', 'attr2' ), 'value2' ),
+                                 ( n:text( 'Nest to create trees' ),
+                                   n:comment( 'functional nodes' ),
+                                   n:element( QName( 'ns', 'bar' ) ) ) )" />
+  @end verbatim
+  @caption{Generating an XML tree using the primitive constructors}
+  @end float
+
+  Consider @ref{fig:node-primitive}, which will output the following tree:
+
+  @example
+  <foo attr1="value1" attr2="value2">@c
+  Nest to create trees@c
+  @xmlcomment{functional nodes}@c
+  <bar />@c
+  </foo>
+  @end example
+
+  Newlines are not automatically added.
+-->
+
+<!--
+  Construct an element named @var{qname} with attributes defined by
+  the QName-value pairs @var{attr-pairs} and child nodes @var{children}.  An
+  empty sequence may be provided if no attributes or children are desired
+  (see also the @ref{n:element#1,,unary} and @ref{n:element#2,,binary}
+  overloads).
+
+  For QName-value pair @var{attr-pairs}, @math{2n} will always be considered
+  to be a QName and @math{2n+1} its associated value.  If the final value in
+  the attribute pair sequence is missing, then it will result in an
+  attribute with an empty string as its value.
+-->
+<function name="n:element" as="element()">
+  <param name="qname"       as="xs:QName" />
+  <param name="attr-pairs"  as="item()*" />
+  <param name="child-nodes" as="node()*" />
+
+  <variable name="element" as="element()">
+    <element name="{$qname}"
+             namespace="{namespace-uri-from-QName( $qname ) }">
+      <sequence select="_n:attr-from-pair( $attr-pairs ),
+                        $child-nodes" />
+    </element>
+  </variable>
+
+  <sequence select="$element" />
+</function>
+
+
+<!--
+  Construct an element named @var{qname} with attributes defined by
+  the QName-value pairs @var{attr-pairs} and no child nodes.  An empty
+  sequence may be provided if no attributes are desired (see also the
+  @ref{n:element#1,,unary} overload).
+
+  This is equivalent to @code{n:element( $qname, $attr-pairs, () )}; see
+  @ref{n:element#3}.
+-->
+<function name="n:element" as="element()">
+  <param name="qname"      as="xs:QName" />
+  <param name="attr-pairs" as="item()*" />
+
+  <sequence select="n:element( $qname, $attr-pairs, () )" />
+</function>
+
+
+<!--
+  Construct an element named @var{qname} with no attributes or children.
+
+  This is equivalent to @code{n:element( $qname, (), () )}; see
+  @ref{n:element#3}.
+-->
+<function name="n:element" as="element()">
+  <param name="qname" as="xs:QName" />
+
+  <sequence select="n:element( $qname, () )" />
+</function>
+
+<!--
+  Create a text node with the given @var{text}.  The @var{text} will be
+  output verbatim without any whitespace processing.
+-->
+<function name="n:text" as="text()">
+  <param name="text" as="xs:string" />
+
+  <variable name="text-node" as="text()">
+    <value-of select="$text" />
+  </variable>
+
+  <sequence select="$text-node" />
+</function>
+
+
+<!--
+  Create a comment node with the given @var{text}.  The @var{text} will be
+  output verbatim without any whitespace processing.
+-->
+<function name="n:comment" as="comment()">
+  <param name="text" as="xs:string" />
+
+  <variable name="comment" as="comment()">
+    <comment select="$text" />
+  </variable>
+
+  <sequence select="$comment" />
+</function>
+
+
+<!--
+  @node Node Private Functions
+  @section Private Functions
+  These functions support the various node functions, but should not be used
+  outside of Hoxsl itself.
+-->
+
+<!--
+  Construct attributes from a list of QName-value pairs.
+
+  For more information on the pair format, see @ref{n:element#3}.
+-->
+<function name="_n:attr-from-pair" as="attribute()*">
+  <param name="attr-pairs" as="item()*" />
+
+  <variable name="attribute" as="attribute()">
+    <variable name="qname" as="xs:QName"
+              select="$attr-pairs[ 1 ]" />
+    <variable name="value" as="xs:anyAtomicType?"
+              select="$attr-pairs[ 2 ]" />
+
+    <attribute name="{$qname}"
+               namespace="{namespace-uri-from-QName( $qname ) }"
+               select="$value" />
+  </variable>
+
+  <sequence select="if ( exists( $attr-pairs ) ) then
+                      ( $attribute,
+                        _n:attr-from-pair(
+                          subsequence( $attr-pairs, 3 ) ) )
+                    else
+                      ()" />
+</function>
+
+</stylesheet>
diff --git a/test/node.xspec b/test/node.xspec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36233c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/node.xspec
@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<!--
+  Tests node constructors
+
+  Copyright (C) 2015 Mike Gerwitz
+
+    This file is part of hoxsl.
+
+    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+-->
+
+<description xmlns="http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/xspec"
+             xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+             xmlns:x="http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/xspec"
+             xmlns:n="http://www.lovullo.com/hoxsl/node"
+             xmlns:foo="http://www.lovullo.com/_junk"
+             xmlns:test-prefix-a="test-ns-a"
+             stylesheet="../src/node.xsl">
+
+  <variable name="test-qname-a"
+            select="QName( 'test-ns-a', 'test-prefix-a:a' )" />
+  <variable name="test-qname-b"
+            select="QName( 'test-ns-b', 'test-prefix-b:b' )" />
+  <variable name="test-qname-c"
+            select="QName( 'test-ns-c', 'test-prefix-c:c' )" />
+
+  <variable name="test-node-element" as="element()">
+    <foo:node-a foo="bar">
+      <node-child />
+    </foo:node-a>
+  </variable>
+
+  <variable name="test-node-comment" as="comment()">
+    <!-- comment -->
+  </variable>
+
+  <!-- whitespace intentional -->
+  <variable name="test-text-a"
+            select="'     This is some test text  '" />
+  <variable name="test-text-b"
+            select="'Some more test text'" />
+
+  <variable name="test-value"
+            select="5" />
+
+
+  <scenario label="A new element">
+    <scenario label="with only a QName">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="qname" select="$test-qname-a" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces an element"
+              test="$x:result instance of element()" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with the given QName"
+              test="node-name( $x:result ) = $test-qname-a" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with no attributes"
+              test="empty( $x:result/@* )" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with no children"
+              test="empty( $x:result/node() )" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="with a sequence of N attributes">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="qname" select="$test-qname-b" />
+
+        <param name="attr-pairs"
+               select="( $test-qname-a, 'a',
+                         $test-qname-c, 'c' )" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces an element"
+              test="$x:result instance of element()" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with the given QName"
+              test="node-name( $x:result ) = $test-qname-b" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with no children"
+              test="empty( $x:result/node() )" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with N attributes"
+              test="count( $x:result/@* ) = 2" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with proper attribute QName/value"
+              test="( some $x in $x:result/@* satisfies
+                      ( node-name( $x ) = $test-qname-a
+                        and $x = 'a' ) )
+                    and ( some $x in $x:result/@* satisfies
+                          ( node-name( $x ) = $test-qname-c
+                            and $x = 'c' ) )" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="with an attribute missing a value">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="qname" select="$test-qname-b" />
+
+        <param name="attr-pairs"
+               select="( $test-qname-a )" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces an attribute with an empty string value"
+              test="$x:result/@test-prefix-a:a = ''" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="with child nodes">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="qname"      select="$test-qname-b" />
+        <param name="attr-pairs" select="()" />
+
+        <param name="child-nodes"
+               select="$test-node-element,
+                       $test-node-comment" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces an element"
+              test="$x:result instance of element()" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with the given QName"
+              test="node-name( $x:result ) = $test-qname-b" />
+
+      <expect label="produces an element with N children"
+              test="count( $x:result/node() ) = 2" />
+
+      <expect label="includes exact child nodes"
+              test="( some $x in $x:result/node() satisfies
+                      deep-equal( $x, $test-node-element ) )
+                    and ( some $x in $x:result/node() satisfies
+                      deep-equal( $x, $test-node-comment ) )" />
+    </scenario>
+  </scenario>
+
+
+  <scenario label="A new comment">
+    <scenario label="standalone">
+      <call function="n:comment">
+        <param name="text" select="$test-text-a" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces a comment node"
+              test="$x:result instance of comment()" />
+
+      <expect label="contains given text verbatim"
+              test="$x:result = $test-text-a" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="within an element">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="name"       select="QName( '', 'foo' )" />
+        <param name="attr-pairs" select="()" />
+
+        <param name="child-nodes"
+               select="n:comment( $test-text-a ),
+                       n:comment( $test-text-b )" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="can be produced N times"
+              test="count( $x:result/comment() ) = 2" />
+
+      <expect label="results in no other child nodes"
+              test="count( $x:result/node() ) = 2" />
+
+      <expect label="contains given text verbatim, ordered"
+              test="$x:result/comment()[1] = $test-text-a
+                    and $x:result/comment()[2] = $test-text-b" />
+    </scenario>
+  </scenario>
+
+
+  <scenario label="A new text node">
+    <scenario label="standalone">
+      <call function="n:text">
+        <param name="text" select="$test-text-a" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="produces a text node"
+              test="$x:result instance of text()" />
+
+      <expect label="contains given text verbatim"
+              test="$x:result = $test-text-a" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="adjacent to text within an element">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="name"       select="QName( '', 'foo' )" />
+        <param name="attr-pairs" select="()" />
+
+        <param name="child-nodes"
+               select="n:text( $test-text-a ),
+                       n:text( $test-text-b )" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="contains given text verbatim, ordered"
+              test="$x:result/text()[1] =
+                      concat( $test-text-a, $test-text-b )" />
+
+      <!-- they're adjacent, and so combined into a single node -->
+      <expect label="results in no other child nodes"
+              test="count( $x:result/node() ) = 1" />
+    </scenario>
+
+
+    <scenario label="separated by other nodes within an element">
+      <call function="n:element">
+        <param name="name"       select="QName( '', 'foo' )" />
+        <param name="attr-pairs" select="()" />
+
+        <param name="child-nodes"
+               select="n:text( $test-text-a ),
+                       $test-node-element,
+                       n:text( $test-text-b )" />
+      </call>
+
+      <expect label="can produce N separate text nodes"
+              test="count( $x:result/text() ) = 2" />
+
+      <expect label="contains given text verbatim, ordered"
+              test="$x:result/text()[1] = $test-text-a
+                    and $x:result/text()[2] = $test-text-b" />
+
+      <expect label="results in no other child nodes"
+              test="count( $x:result/node() ) = 3" />
+    </scenario>
+  </scenario>
+</description>