Who completed and edited J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion for publication after his death?

Christopher Tolkien completed and edited J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion for publication after his father’s death.

The Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien died. It is a collection of mythological and historical narratives about the creation of the world, the First Age, and the peoples and conflicts of Tolkien’s imagined history.

J.R.R. Tolkien worked on related material for decades, but he did not leave a single finished manuscript arranged for publication. Christopher Tolkien selected, organized, and edited the surviving writings, with assistance from fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay.

The book is therefore both Tolkien’s creation and a posthumous editorial construction. It is not simply a novel written in one continuous form. Its sections include the Valaquenta, the Quenta Silmarillion, and shorter concluding texts.