The Silmarillion was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first posthumously published Middle-earth book edited by Christopher Tolkien.
It was published in 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. Christopher Tolkien organized and edited material from his father’s extensive papers, working with Guy Gavriel Kay during the preparation of the published volume. The result presents a compressed history of Tolkien’s imagined world from its creation through major events of the First Age and later periods.
The book is not a conventional novel like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. It combines creation mythology, legends, genealogies, histories, and accounts of the peoples of Arda. Its opening section is called the Ainulindalë, followed by the Valaquenta and the central Quenta Silmarillion.
Unfinished Tales followed in 1980. The History of Middle-earth was a later twelve-volume editorial series, while The Children of Húrin appeared much later as a separate edited narrative.