diff --git a/scripts/base/protocols/http/main.bro b/scripts/base/protocols/http/main.bro
index 21b4fb6113..ec8a5ffad8 100644
--- a/scripts/base/protocols/http/main.bro
+++ b/scripts/base/protocols/http/main.bro
@@ -94,6 +94,17 @@ export {
 		"XROXY-CONNECTION",
 		"PROXY-CONNECTION",
 	} &redef;
+
+	## A list of HTTP methods. Other methods will generate a weird.
+	const http_methods: set[string] = {
+		"GET", "POST", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", 
+		"PUT", "DELETE", "TRACE", "CONNECT",
+		# HTTP methods for distributed authoring:
+		"PROPFIND", "PROPPATCH", "MKCOL",
+		"COPY", "MOVE", "LOCK", "UNLOCK",
+		"POLL", "REPORT", "SUBSCRIBE", "BMOVE",
+		"SEARCH"
+	} &redef;
 	
 	## Event that can be handled to access the HTTP record as it is sent on 
 	## to the logging framework.
@@ -180,6 +191,9 @@ event http_request(c: connection, method: string, original_URI: string,
 	
 	c$http$method = method;
 	c$http$uri = unescaped_URI;
+	
+	if ( !(method in http_methods) )
+		event conn_weird("unknown_HTTP_method", c, method);	     	     
 	}
 	
 event http_reply(c: connection, version: string, code: count, reason: string) &priority=5
diff --git a/src/HTTP.cc b/src/HTTP.cc
index 9d9f01be64..0748ca55a7 100644
--- a/src/HTTP.cc
+++ b/src/HTTP.cc
@@ -1118,36 +1118,18 @@ const char* HTTP_Analyzer::PrefixWordMatch(const char* line,
 
 int HTTP_Analyzer::HTTP_RequestLine(const char* line, const char* end_of_line)
 	{
-	const char* rest = 0;
-	static const char* http_methods[] = {
-		"GET", "POST", "HEAD",
-
-		"OPTIONS", "PUT", "DELETE", "TRACE", "CONNECT",
-
-		// HTTP methods for distributed authoring.
-		"PROPFIND", "PROPPATCH", "MKCOL", "DELETE", "PUT",
-		"COPY", "MOVE", "LOCK", "UNLOCK",
-		"POLL", "REPORT", "SUBSCRIBE", "BMOVE",
-
-		"SEARCH",
-
-		0,
-	};
-
-	int i;
-	for ( i = 0; http_methods[i]; ++i )
-		if ( (rest = PrefixWordMatch(line, end_of_line, http_methods[i])) != 0 )
-			break;
-
-	if ( ! http_methods[i] )
-		{
-		// Weird("HTTP_unknown_method");
-		if ( RequestExpected() )
-			HTTP_Event("unknown_HTTP_method", new_string_val(line, end_of_line));
-		return 0;
-		}
-
-	request_method = new StringVal(http_methods[i]);
+	const char* request_method_str;
+	int request_method_len;
+	const char* rest;
+	get_word(strlen(line), line, request_method_len, request_method_str);
+		  
+	request_method = new StringVal(request_method_len, request_method_str);
+	if ( (rest = PrefixWordMatch(line, end_of_line, (const char*) request_method->AsString()->Bytes() )) == 0)
+	     {
+	     // Most likely a DPD failure - this is pretty noisy for me, so leaving commented for now
+	     // reporter->InternalError("HTTP RequestLine failed");
+	    return 0;
+	     }
 
 	if ( ! ParseRequest(rest, end_of_line) )
 		reporter->InternalError("HTTP ParseRequest failed");