The Silmarillion is J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published mythology collection edited by Christopher Tolkien. It was published in 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death.
The book presents the history of Tolkien’s invented world from its creation through the First Age and beyond. Its sections include the Ainulindalë, the Valaquenta, the Quenta Silmarillion, the Akallabêth, and the concluding “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.”
Christopher Tolkien assembled and edited material that his father had developed, revised, and left in different states over many decades. The result is not a conventional novel with one continuous narrative, but a collection of myths, histories, genealogies, and legends.
The title refers to the Silmarils, three jewels made by Fëanor. Readers sometimes mistake The Silmarillion for a direct prequel novel to The Lord of the Rings; its structure is broader and more mythic, covering the deep history behind that later story.