Which editor compiled J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published The Silmarillion?

Christopher Tolkien compiled J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published The Silmarillion.

The Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. Christopher Tolkien edited, organized, and prepared his father’s extensive papers, which contained multiple versions of stories about the creation of the world, the Valar, the Elves, and the First Age.

The book is not a conventional novel written in one finished form. It is a carefully assembled mythology built from drafts, revisions, annalistic material, and narrative texts produced across decades. Christopher had to make editorial decisions about structure and presentation while preserving as much of his father’s intended mythology as possible.

Readers sometimes assume The Silmarillion was completed and published by Tolkien himself, but its publication was posthumous. Christopher’s editorial role is therefore essential to understanding why the book exists in its 1977 form.