diff --git a/package/guile/Config.in b/package/guile/Config.in
index b1182a4cee..f70e674018 100644
--- a/package/guile/Config.in
+++ b/package/guile/Config.in
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_GUILE
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBFFI
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_GMP
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_BDWGC
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBICONV if !BR2_ENABLE_LOCALE
 	help
 	  Guile is an interpreter and compiler for the Scheme
 	  programming language, a clean and elegant dialect of Lisp.
diff --git a/package/guile/guile.mk b/package/guile/guile.mk
index 0f245fca76..03420407f8 100644
--- a/package/guile/guile.mk
+++ b/package/guile/guile.mk
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@ GUILE_CPE_ID_VENDOR = gnu
 GUILE_DEPENDENCIES = host-guile libunistring libffi gmp bdwgc host-pkgconf
 HOST_GUILE_DEPENDENCIES = host-libunistring host-libffi host-gmp host-bdwgc host-flex host-pkgconf host-gettext
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_ENABLE_LOCALE),)
+GUILE_DEPENDENCIES += libiconv
+endif
+
 # The HAVE_GC* CFLAGS specify that we will use internal callbacks
 # instead of the ones provided by
 # bdwgc. Eg. HAVE_GC_SET_FINALIZER_NOTIFIER specifies that we won't