For this reason, Christopher’s job of stitching together an organised history from his father’s notes required mammoth amounts of work and, in some cases, invention, where gaps needed to be filled. Such a project was, however, deemed ‘unpublishable’, and Tolkien died before being able to complete coherent rewrites of each of the stories. “He’d produced this huge output”, says his grandson Simon, “that was his great work but it had never seen the light of day despite his best efforts to get it published”. While the book is made up of five separate works, it was Tolkien’s wish to one day see them published together. The Silmarillion covers the Second Age (which we understand is when the Rings of Power will be set) and the Third Age, when the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. Published posthumously, it represents several of Tolkien’s works collected and edited by his son Christopher. The Ages are of varying lengths, and are usually bookended by cataclysmic or world-changing events, such as wars or disasters. It includes Tolkien’s creation myth and various histories from then until the end of the Third great Age of the world. It draws from various sources of inspiration including Greek mythology, the Finnish epic the Kalevala, the Bible, and aspects of Celtic mythology.
The Silmarillion is essentially Tolkien’s legendarium for the world of Arda (the world of which Middle-earth is a part).
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