J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Silmarillion first appeared in print in 1977.
The book was published on 15 September 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. Christopher Tolkien edited the material with assistance from the fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay, shaping a publishable narrative from drafts, notes, and differing versions accumulated across decades.
The Silmarillion is a collection of interconnected mythic histories rather than a conventional sequel to The Lord of the Rings. Its central section, the Quenta Silmarillion, recounts the wars over the jewels called the Silmarils and the tragic history of the First Age.
Tolkien had worked on the underlying mythology since the First World War, revising it repeatedly throughout his life. That long and unfinished development explains why the published book contains editorial decisions and why later volumes reveal alternative versions of many stories.