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

Christopher Tolkien completed the editorial preparation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.

The Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death. It was not a finished novel in the same sense as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Instead, it was assembled from many versions of myths, legends, annals, and genealogical material that Tolkien had developed and revised over decades.

Christopher Tolkien organized his father’s papers and shaped them into a publishable volume. He worked with the author’s extensive drafts and variant texts, making editorial choices about arrangement, wording, and consistency. The result presents the history of Arda from its creation through major events of the First Age.

Christopher was Tolkien’s third son and later served as literary executor of the estate. He edited many additional works, including Unfinished Tales and the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion therefore reflects both J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology and Christopher Tolkien’s editorial reconstruction.