Who was J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and literary executor who edited The Silmarillion?

Christopher Tolkien was J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and the literary executor who edited The Silmarillion. He prepared the posthumous work for publication by arranging and selecting material from his father’s extensive papers.

The Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death. It presents the creation mythology of Tolkien’s invented world, the history of Valinor and Middle-earth, and major stories involving the Elves, Morgoth, and the First Age.

Christopher Tolkien continued publishing and editing his father’s writings for decades. His twelve-volume History of Middle-earth documents the evolution of Tolkien’s drafts, revisions, and ideas, allowing readers to study how the legendarium changed over time.

Christopher was not the author of Middle-earth, but his editorial decisions were essential to making unfinished and variant material available. Some later works therefore reflect editorial construction rather than a final manuscript prepared by J.R.R. Tolkien himself.