The Silmarillion, published in 1977, recounts the creation of Arda and the history of the Elder Days. Christopher Tolkien edited the posthumous volume from his father’s manuscripts, with assistance from the writer Guy Gavriel Kay. It was the first major Tolkien book published after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death.
The volume begins with the Ainulindalë, a creation account describing the Music of the Ainur. It continues through the shaping of the world, the awakening of the Elves, the deeds of the Valar, and the wars surrounding the Silmarils. Its final sections connect the ancient history of Middle-earth with the later stories of Númenor and the Rings of Power.
The Silmarillion is not a conventional single-narrator novel. It includes myths, annals, genealogies, and historical-style narratives, and Tolkien revised many of its underlying stories repeatedly. Readers sometimes confuse the book’s publication date with the dates when its individual tales were first drafted; much of the material originated decades earlier.