The Silmarillion, published posthumously in 1977, presents the mythology of Middle-earth’s First Age.
J.R.R. Tolkien worked on the stories that became The Silmarillion for decades, revising them alongside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The book was edited and assembled by his son Christopher Tolkien after Tolkien’s death in 1973. It appeared four years later.
The collection begins with creation myths in the Ainulindalë and continues through the history of Valinor, the making of the Silmarils and the wars against Morgoth. Major narratives include the tragedies of Túrin Turambar, Beren and Lúthien, and the fall of Gondolin.
The Silmarillion is not a conventional novel with one continuous narrator. Its sections resemble myth, annal and legend, which can make it denser than the later novels. The History of Middle-earth is a separate twelve-volume editorial study of Tolkien’s drafts and evolving ideas.