J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published collection presenting Middle-earth’s creation myths and First Age legends is The Silmarillion.
The Silmarillion was edited and published by Tolkien’s son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. It gathers material developed across much of Tolkien’s life, including accounts of the creation of the world, the Valar, the Elves, the Silmarils, and the wars of the First Age.
Its opening section, the Ainulindalë, describes the creation of the world through music. The Valaquenta discusses the Valar and Maiar, while the Quenta Silmarillion tells the central First Age stories surrounding Fëanor’s creation of the Silmarils and the conflicts that follow.
The book is not a conventional novel with one continuous narrative. Christopher Tolkien assembled and edited versions from drafts, notes, and manuscripts. Readers sometimes confuse it with Unfinished Tales, a separate 1980 collection that includes additional narrative material from several periods of Middle-earth’s history.