diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 50eccca47..3163f395c 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -5,6 +5,26 @@ See the end for copying conditions.
 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
 
 
+
+Changes in 2.2.1 (since 2.2.0):
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** Syntax objects are now a distinct type
+
+It used to be that syntax objects were represented as a tagged vector.
+These values could be forged by users to break scoping abstractions,
+preventing the implementation of sandboxing facilities in Guile.  We are
+as embarrassed about the previous situation as we pleased are about the
+fact that we've fixed it.
+
+Unfortunately, during the 2.2 stable series (or at least during part of
+it), we need to support files compiled with Guile 2.2.0.  These files
+may contain macros that contain legacy syntax object constants.  See the
+discussion of "allow-legacy-syntax-objects?" in "Syntax Transformer
+Helpers" in the manual for full details.
+
+
 
 Changes in 2.2.0 (changes since the 2.0.x stable release series):
 
diff --git a/doc/ref/api-macros.texi b/doc/ref/api-macros.texi
index ef0621415..7fa62e3d6 100644
--- a/doc/ref/api-macros.texi
+++ b/doc/ref/api-macros.texi
@@ -791,6 +791,44 @@ Return the source properties that correspond to the syntax object
 @var{x}.  @xref{Source Properties}, for more information.
 @end deffn
 
+And now, a bit of confession time.  Guile's syntax expander originates
+in code from Chez Scheme: a version of the expander in Chez Scheme that
+was made portable to other Scheme systems.  Way back in the mid-1990s,
+some Scheme systems didn't even have the ability to define new abstract
+data types.  For this reason, the portable expander from Chez Scheme
+that Guile inherited used tagged vectors as syntax objects: vectors
+whose first element was the symbol, @code{syntax-object}.
+
+At the time of this writing it is 2017 and Guile still has support for
+this strategy.  It worked for this long because no one ever puts a
+literal vector in the operator position:
+
+@example
+(#(syntax-object ...) 1 2 3)
+@end example
+
+But this state of affairs was an error.  Because syntax objects are just
+vectors, this makes it possible for any Scheme code to forge a syntax
+object which might cause it to violate abstraction boundaries.  You
+can't build a sandboxing facility that limits the set of bindings in
+scope when one can always escape that limit just by evaluating a special
+vector.  To fix this problem, Guile 2.2.1 finally migrated to represent
+syntax objects as a distinct type with a distinct constructor that is
+unavailable to user code.
+
+However, Guile still has to support ``legacy'' syntax objects, because
+it could be that a file compiled with Guile 2.2.0 embeds syntax objects
+of the vector kind.  Whether the expander treats the special tagged
+vectors as syntax objects is now controllable by the
+@code{allow-legacy-syntax-objects?} parameter:
+
+@deffn {Scheme Procedure} allow-legacy-syntax-objects?
+A parameter that indicates whether the expander should support legacy
+syntax objects, as described above.  For ABI stability reasons, the
+default is @code{#t}.  Use @code{parameterize} to bind it to @code{#f}.
+@xref{Parameters}.
+@end deffn
+
 Guile also offers some more experimental interfaces in a separate
 module.  As was the case with the Large Hadron Collider, it is unclear
 to our senior macrologists whether adding these interfaces will result
diff --git a/module/ice-9/boot-9.scm b/module/ice-9/boot-9.scm
index be890fa45..a70cd11ef 100644
--- a/module/ice-9/boot-9.scm
+++ b/module/ice-9/boot-9.scm
@@ -299,6 +299,9 @@ This is handy for tracing function calls, e.g.:
 (define (absolute-file-name? file-name) #t)
 (define (open-input-file str) (open-file str "r"))
 
+;; Temporary definition; replaced by a parameter later.
+(define (allow-legacy-syntax-objects?) #f)
+
 ;;; {and-map and or-map}
 ;;;
 ;;; (and-map fn lst) is like (and (fn (car lst)) (fn (cadr lst)) (fn...) ...)
@@ -1423,11 +1426,15 @@ CONV is not applied to the initial value."
 
 
 ;;; Once parameters have booted, define the default prompt tag as being
-;;; a parameter.
+;;; a parameter, and make allow-legacy-syntax-objects? a parameter.
 ;;;
 
 (set! default-prompt-tag (make-parameter (default-prompt-tag)))
 
+;; Because code compiled with Guile 2.2.0 embeds legacy syntax objects
+;; into its compiled macros, we have to default to true, sadly.
+(set! allow-legacy-syntax-objects? (make-parameter #t))
+
 
 
 ;;; {Languages}
diff --git a/module/ice-9/psyntax.scm b/module/ice-9/psyntax.scm
index a45e2a6cc..5696c4642 100644
--- a/module/ice-9/psyntax.scm
+++ b/module/ice-9/psyntax.scm
@@ -473,7 +473,8 @@
 
     (define (syntax-object? x)
       (or (syntax? x)
-          (and (vector? x)
+          (and (allow-legacy-syntax-objects?)
+               (vector? x)
                (= (vector-length x) 4)
                (eqv? (vector-ref x 0) 'syntax-object))))
     (define (make-syntax-object expression wrap module)