From 1963 to 1966 Godden studied for a B.A. in English at Pembroke College, Cambridge; he then continued with several postgraduate studies until 1969. In 1970 he obtained a PhD from Cambridge University for a dissertation which was an edition of Ælfric's Second Series of Catholic Homilies under the supervision of Professor P. A. M. Clemoes.
Godden's academic appointments include:
1969–1972: Junior Research Fellow, Pembroke College, Cambridge
1970–1971: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, Cornell University
1972–1975: University Lecturer, Department of English Language, Liverpool University
1976–1991: Fellow and lecturer in English, Exeter College, Oxford, and CUF Lecturer in the Faculty of English, Oxford University
Godden delivered the 2009 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture.
Bibliography
Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: the Second Series, Text (Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series; 5.) Oxford: University Press, 1979
The Making of Piers Plowman. London, 1990
The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature; edited with M. Lapidge. Cambridge: University Press, 1991
From Anglo-Saxon to Early Middle English: studies presented to E. G. Stanley; edited with D. Gray and T. Hoad. Oxford, 1994
Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: the First Series, Text; ed. P. Clemoes. (Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series; 17.) Oxford: University Press, 1997
Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentary and Glossary. (Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series; 18.) Oxford: University Press, 2000
The Old English Boethius: an edition of the Old English versions of Boethius’s "De Consolatione Philosophiae"; edited with S. Irvine. 2 vols. Oxford: University Press, 2009