Index: pdfbox/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/pdmodel/fdf/FDFDictionary.java
===================================================================
--- pdfbox/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/pdmodel/fdf/FDFDictionary.java	(revision 1307323)
+++ pdfbox/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/pdmodel/fdf/FDFDictionary.java	(working copy)
@@ -97,11 +97,16 @@
                 }
                 else if( child.getTagName().equals( "fields" ) )
                 {
-                    NodeList fields = child.getElementsByTagName( "field" );
+                    NodeList fields = child.getChildNodes();
                     List fieldList = new ArrayList();
                     for( int f=0; f<fields.getLength(); f++ )
                     {
-                        fieldList.add( new FDFField( (Element)fields.item( f ) ) );
+                        Node currentNode = fields.item( f );
+                        if (currentNode instanceof Element) {
+                            if (((Element)currentNode).getTagName().equals("field")) {
+                                fieldList.add( new FDFField( (Element)fields.item( f ) ) );
+                            }
+                        }
                     }
                     setFields( fieldList );
                 }