"The Silmarillion" was compiled by Christopher Tolkien (who was long involved in J. R. R. Tolkien's creative process) and published in 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death. It presents an abridged cycle of Tolkien's drafts of his Elvish legends, drawing material from the earliest "Book of Lost Tales" to drafts written long after "The Lord of the Rings". Most of the original texts have subsequently appeared in the "History of Middle-earth". Christopher's goal was a version resembling what he thought at the time his father might have produced.