Though Buechner returns to the first person narrative style first utilised in the Bebb tetralogy, Godric appears to have brought with it new challenges to the author. His first foray into period literature, Buechner admits to having grappled somewhat with the problem of creating a prose that evoked medieval England while remaining accessible. In Now and Then he writes that, 'despite the problem of developing a language that sounded authentic on his lips without becoming impenetrably archaic' the novel was still quickly and easily completed.[2]
For Buechner, Godric also represents a fresh reengagement with several substantial themes, many of which are discussed elsewhere in his literature. Among them are sin, the search for identity, faith, and the supernatural. At the forefront, however, and certainly more so than in any of Buechner’s previous novels, is an investigation of death and ageing:
Godric is a very old man as he tells his tale, and old age and the approach of death are very much in the back of his mind throughout. In this sense I think it was a book as prophetic, for me, as the Bebb books had been. It was prophetic in the sense that in its pages, more than half without knowing it, I was trying on various ways of growing old and facing death myself. As the years go by, Godric outlives, or is left behind by, virtually everybody he has ever loved––his sister, Burcwen; his shipmate, Roger Mouse; the two snakes, Tune and Fairweather, who for years were his constant companions; and the beautiful maid, Gillian, who appeared to him on the way back from his pilgrimage to Rome. But, although not without anguish, he is able to let them all go finally and to survive their going. His humanity and wit survive. His faith survives.[5]
Godric is told in Saint Godric's own voice: Buechner intentionally uses style, tone, and word choice to evoke a "mediaeval" manner of speaking. The book unfolds with Godric narrating the events of his life in retrospect, as he looks back on his hundred years of life and does not see the saintly existence that many ascribe to him.
As a historical novel it provides a gateway for understanding mediaeval history with the full breadth of imagination, characterisation and emotion in which non-fiction history is restricted. Some of the historical themes Buechner depicts in the book include blood libels, pilgrimage, Christian asceticism, hagiography, traveling court culture, and Norman and Saxon relations.
