diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.1.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.1.txt
index c507b129bb..6aa24c64c0 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.1.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.1.txt
@@ -146,55 +146,44 @@ details).
 
  * The configuration parser had an unnecessary hardcoded limit on
    variable names that was not checked consistently.
-   (merge 0971e99 bw/config-lift-variable-name-length-limit later to maint).
 
  * The "say" function in the test scaffolding incorrectly allowed
    "echo" to interpret "\a" as if it were a C-string asking for a
    BEL output.
-   (merge 7bc0911 jc/test-say-color-avoid-echo-escape later to maint).
 
  * "git mergetool" feeds /dev/null as a common ancestor when dealing
    with an add/add conflict, but p4merge backend cannot handle
    it. Work it around by passing a temporary empty file.
-   (merge 3facc60 da/mergetools-p4 later to maint).
 
  * "git log -F -E --grep='<ere>'" failed to use the given <ere>
    pattern as extended regular expression, and instead looked for the
    string literally.
-   (merge 727b6fc jc/grep-pcre-loose-ends~1 later to maint).
 
  * "git grep -e pattern <tree>" asked the attribute system to read
    "<tree>:.gitattributes" file in the working tree, which was
    nonsense.
-   (merge 55c6168 nd/grep-true-path later to maint).
 
  * A symbolic ref refs/heads/SYM was not correctly removed with "git
    branch -d SYM"; the command removed the ref pointed by SYM
    instead.
-   (merge 13baa9f rs/branch-del-symref later to maint).
 
  * Update "remote tracking branch" in the documentation to
    "remote-tracking branch".
-   (merge a6d3bde mm/maint-doc-remote-tracking later to maint).
 
  * "git pull --rebase" run while the HEAD is detached tried to find
    the upstream branch of the detached HEAD (which by definition
    does not exist) and emitted unnecessary error messages.
-   (merge e980765 ph/pull-rebase-detached later to maint).
 
  * The refs/replace hierarchy was not mentioned in the
    repository-layout docs.
-   (merge 11fbe18 po/maint-refs-replace-docs later to maint).
 
  * Various rfc2047 quoting issues around a non-ASCII name on the
    From: line in the output from format-patch have been corrected.
-   (merge 25dc8da js/format-2047 later to maint).
 
  * Sometimes curl_multi_timeout() function suggested a wrong timeout
    value when there is no file descriptor to wait on and the http
    transport ended up sleeping for minutes in select(2) system call.
    A workaround has been added for this.
-   (merge 7202b81 sz/maint-curl-multi-timeout later to maint).
 
  * For a fetch refspec (or the result of applying wildcard on one),
    we always want the RHS to map to something inside "refs/"
@@ -203,7 +192,6 @@ details).
 
  * "git diff -G<pattern>" did not honor textconv filter when looking
    for changes.
-   (merge b1c2f57 jk/maint-diff-grep-textconv later to maint).
 
  * Some HTTP servers ask for auth only during the actual packing phase
    (not in ls-remote phase); this is not really a recommended
@@ -213,41 +201,35 @@ details).
 
  * "git p4" used to try expanding malformed "$keyword$" that spans
    across multiple lines.
-   (merge 6b2bf41 pw/maint-p4-rcs-expansion-newline later to maint).
 
  * Syntax highlighting in "gitweb" was not quite working.
-   (merge 048b399 rh/maint-gitweb-highlight-ext later to maint).
 
  * RSS feed from "gitweb" had a xss hole in its title output.
-   (merge 0f0ecf6 jk/maint-gitweb-xss later to maint).
 
  * "git config --path $key" segfaulted on "[section] key" (a boolean
    "true" spelled without "=", not "[section] key = true").
-   (merge 962c38e cn/config-missing-path later to maint).
 
  * "git checkout -b foo" while on an unborn branch did not say
    "Switched to a new branch 'foo'" like other cases.
-   (merge afa8c07 jk/checkout-out-of-unborn later to maint).
+
+ * Various codepaths have workaround for a common misconfiguration to
+   spell "UTF-8" as "utf8", but it was not used uniformly.  Most
+   notably, mailinfo (which is used by "git am") lacked this support.
 
  * We failed to mention a file without any content change but whose
    permission bit was modified, or (worse yet) a new file without any
    content in the "git diff --stat" output.
-   (merge de9095955 lt/diff-stat-show-0-lines later to maint).
 
  * When "--stat-count" hides a diffstat for binary contents, the total
    number of added and removed lines at the bottom was computed
    incorrectly.
-   (merge de9095955 lt/diff-stat-show-0-lines later to maint).
 
  * When "--stat-count" hides a diffstat for unmerged paths, the total
    number of affected files at the bottom of the "diff --stat" output
    was computed incorrectly.
-   (merge de9095955 lt/diff-stat-show-0-lines later to maint).
 
  * "diff --shortstat" miscounted the total number of affected files
    when there were unmerged paths.
-   (merge de9095955 lt/diff-stat-show-0-lines later to maint).
 
  * "update-ref -d --deref SYM" to delete a ref through a symbolic ref
    that points to it did not remove it correctly.
-   (merge b274a71 jh/update-ref-d-through-symref later to maint).
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 76ffd4d4d6..4bc073cc13 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v1.8.1-rc0
+DEF_VER=v1.8.1-rc1
 
 LF='
 '