diff --git a/test/ruby/test_variable.rb b/test/ruby/test_variable.rb
index 86f2e4bb84..49fec2d40e 100644
--- a/test/ruby/test_variable.rb
+++ b/test/ruby/test_variable.rb
@@ -425,6 +425,13 @@ class TestVariable < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  def test_local_variables_encoding
+    α = 1
+    b = binding
+    b.eval("".encode("us-ascii"))
+    assert_equal(%i[α b], b.local_variables)
+  end
+
   private
   def with_kwargs_11(v1:, v2:, v3:, v4:, v5:, v6:, v7:, v8:, v9:, v10:, v11:)
     local_variables
diff --git a/version.h b/version.h
index c7e4308eb8..00e4d7f43f 100644
--- a/version.h
+++ b/version.h
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 # define RUBY_VERSION_MINOR RUBY_API_VERSION_MINOR
 #define RUBY_VERSION_TEENY 1
 #define RUBY_RELEASE_DATE RUBY_RELEASE_YEAR_STR"-"RUBY_RELEASE_MONTH_STR"-"RUBY_RELEASE_DAY_STR
-#define RUBY_PATCHLEVEL 6
+#define RUBY_PATCHLEVEL 7
 
 #include "ruby/version.h"
 #include "ruby/internal/abi.h"
diff --git a/vm_eval.c b/vm_eval.c
index eaf59f41a3..a8c12707ec 100644
--- a/vm_eval.c
+++ b/vm_eval.c
@@ -1690,6 +1690,8 @@ pm_eval_make_iseq(VALUE src, VALUE fname, int line,
     // scopes array refer to root nodes on the tree, and higher indexes are the
     // leaf nodes.
     iseq = parent;
+    rb_encoding *encoding = rb_enc_get(src);
+
     for (int scopes_index = 0; scopes_index < scopes_count; scopes_index++) {
         VALUE iseq_value = (VALUE)iseq;
         int locals_count = ISEQ_BODY(iseq)->local_table_size;
@@ -1711,6 +1713,14 @@ pm_eval_make_iseq(VALUE src, VALUE fname, int line,
                     continue;
                 }
 
+                // Check here if this local can be represented validly in the
+                // encoding of the source string. If it _cannot_, then it should
+                // not be added to the constant pool as it would not be able to
+                // be referenced anyway.
+                if (rb_enc_str_coderange_scan(name_obj, encoding) == ENC_CODERANGE_BROKEN) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+
                 /* We need to duplicate the string because the Ruby string may
                  * be embedded so compaction could move the string and the pointer
                  * will change. */