Who completed the editorial work that led to the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion?

Christopher Tolkien completed the editorial work that led to the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.

After J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973, Christopher inherited a vast collection of unfinished, revised, and sometimes contradictory manuscripts concerning Middle-earth. He selected, organized, and edited these materials into a readable posthumous volume, published in 1977.

The task was not simply transcription. Tolkien had developed some stories in multiple versions over several decades, and the manuscripts often differed in names, chronology, and details. Christopher therefore had to compare drafts and make editorial decisions about how the material should be presented.

Christopher later edited many other posthumous works, including Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, and The Children of Húrin. His editorial project made a substantial portion of his father’s unpublished mythology available, while his introductions and notes also documented how the texts evolved.