The Silmarillion was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first major posthumously published collection of Middle-earth stories.
The book was published on 15 September 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death. Christopher Tolkien edited the manuscripts and worked with the fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay to shape a publishable text from a large and sometimes contradictory body of material.
The Silmarillion begins with a creation account and then presents the history of Arda, the world containing Middle-earth. Its central sections cover the First Age, including the rebellion of the Noldor, the wars against Morgoth, and the fate of the Silmarils. Later portions recount the histories of Númenor and the Rings of Power.
Because Tolkien revised these stories repeatedly, the finished book does not represent a single manuscript that he had prepared for publication. It is also more mythic and compressed in style than The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Unfinished Tales, published in 1980, contains a different selection of incomplete narratives and editorial notes.