Who edited J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous 1977 book The Silmarillion?

Christopher Tolkien edited J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous 1977 book The Silmarillion.

After J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973, his third son, Christopher Tolkien, organized and edited a large body of unfinished and variant writings. The Silmarillion was published by George Allen & Unwin in 1977 and presents myths and histories reaching from the creation of the world to events connected with the War of the Ring.

The book includes the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabêth, and Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age. These sections differ in style and scope because Tolkien revised his mythology repeatedly over many decades.

Christopher’s editorial role is sometimes overlooked because the book is commonly treated as a straightforward novel. It is better understood as an edited posthumous collection shaped from Tolkien’s extensive, unfinished legendarium.