The SilmarillionThe forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion fills in the background which lies behind the more popular work and gives the earlier history of Middle earth, introducing some of the key characters. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's World. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.