The title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1977 posthumous Middle-earth book was The Silmarillion.
Christopher Tolkien edited the work from his father’s extensive notes and drafts, and George Allen & Unwin published it after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. Rather than functioning as a single conventional novel, the book presents a collection of interconnected myths, histories, genealogies, and legends concerning the creation and early ages of Tolkien’s imagined world.
Its central sections include the Ainulindalë, the Valaquenta, the Quenta Silmarillion, the Akallabêth, and the Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age. The Quenta Silmarillion focuses especially on the wars over the Silmarils and the history of the First Age.
The book is often confused with Unfinished Tales, another posthumous collection edited by Christopher Tolkien. The Silmarillion was published in 1977, while Unfinished Tales appeared in 1980.