The Silmarillion, published in 1977, contains many of J.R.R. Tolkien’s foundational myths of Middle-earth.
Tolkien worked on the material for decades, but he did not complete a final publishable form before his death in 1973. His son Christopher Tolkien edited the manuscripts with assistance from the fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, and George Allen & Unwin published the resulting book posthumously.
The volume opens with the creation account “Ainulindalë” and continues through the shaping of Arda, the history of the immortal Valar, and the awakening of Elves. Its central section, the Quenta Silmarillion, recounts the wars surrounding the three jewels made by Fëanor. Later sections cover the Second Age and the story of the Ring’s origin.
The Silmarillion is not a conventional sequel to The Lord of the Rings. It is a mythology and historical record assembled from several stages of Tolkien’s writing, which explains its formal and narrative differences.