The Silmarillion begins when Ilúvatar, an omniscient and omnipotent being, creates a group of spirits called the Ainur before the beginning of time. He teaches the Ainur to sing Great Music that conceives the world he subsequently brings into being. One Ainu, Melkor, creates discord and changes his part of the music to empower himself, but he’s unable to affect Ilúvatar’s ultimate plan. Once Ilúvatar creates the foundations of the world, the Valar, a group of 14 Ainur with dominion over different aspects of the world, descend to begin preparing it for the arrival of elves and men. Melkor repeatedly destroys the Valar’s work and convinces some of the Maiar, lesser spirits, to follow him. When the world is finished, the Valar settle in the land of Valinor, across the sea from Middle-earth where Melkor resides. Around that time, the elves awaken in Middle-earth and the Valar imprison Melkor. The Valar invite the elves to join them in Valinor, leading to the sundering of the elves into many different groups across the world.
In Valinor, the elf Fëanor creates three beautiful jewels called the Silmarils which contain the light of the sacred Trees of Valinor. Meanwhile, Melkor is released from his long imprisonment by Manwë, the king of the Valar, and begins secretly working to estrange the elves from the Valar. Fëanor is influenced by Melkor’s lies and considers rebellion against the Valar. After his treachery is revealed, Melkor destroys the Trees of Valinor, steals the Silmarils, and kills Fëanor’s father, prompting Fëanor to lead his people, the Noldor, away from the Valar’s rule and into Middle-earth. As the Noldor leave, they kill many of the Teleri elves and steal their ships, then Fëanor and his sons swear an oath to reclaim the Silmarils at any cost. The Vala Mandos declares the Doom of the Noldor, which warns that their lives will be miserable if they don’t repent of their rebellion and murder. Though some turn back to Valinor, most of the Noldor refuse to repent.
Though the Two Trees which gave Valinor light are dead, the Valar salvage a fruit from one and a flower from the other and use them to create the sun and moon. Meanwhile, in the west of Middle-earth, Melian, a Maia, and her husband Thingol, an elf, rule the Sindar elves and defend their lands against Melkor, who fled Valinor to his old fortress Angband. The Noldor join the elves of Beleriand to defeat Melkor’s armies, though Fëanor is killed by one of Melkor’s Balrogs.
A period of peace follows as the Noldor establish kingdoms in Beleriand and Turgon, Fingolfin’s son, secretly builds the city of Gondolin in a hidden valley. Turgon’s sister Aredhel leaves Gondolin and marries the controlling elf Eöl. When their son Maeglin is grown, she takes him to Gondolin and dies there, defending him from Eöl. The elf Finrod discovers that men have awoken in Middle-earth. The elves guide them and help them establish the Three Houses of men, though Melkor’s spies infiltrate them and try to turn them against the elves. When Melkor attacks again, a man named Barahir rescues Finrod, who swears an oath of friendship with him. Melkor kills Fingolfin and invades Beleriand.
Beren, a man and the son of Barahir, lives as an outlaw after Melkor’s most recent invasion. He wanders into Doriath, the protected forest kingdom of Thingol and Melian, and falls in love with their daughter, the elf Lúthien. When Thingol discovers their relationship, he gives Beren the task of retrieving one of the Silmarils from Melkor’s crown to win Lúthien’s hand. Because of his oath to Barahir, Finrod accompanies Beren to steal the Silmaril, but they’re caught by Sauron and Finrod is killed. Lúthien rescues Beren with the help of Huan the hound, and the two steal a Silmaril from Melkor after Lúthien sings him to sleep. Thingol allows Beren and Lúthien’s marriage, but Beren is killed soon after. When Lúthien begs the Vala Mandos, he permits her and Beren to return to Middle-earth to live and die as mortals.
After Beren and Lúthien successfully break into Angband, the Noldor unite again to attack Melkor’s fortress and are badly defeated. Melkor captures a man named Húrin and curses his family to misfortune. Though Húrin’s son Túrin becomes an impressive soldier, Melkor’s curse leads him to accidentally murder his friend Beleg and marry his sister Nienor, whose memory is stolen by the dragon Glaurung. Túrin defeats Glaurung, who reveals Nienor’s identity as he’s dying, and both she and Túrin take their own lives.
In an altercation over the Silmaril, dwarves murder Thingol and later invade Doriath. Beren recovers the Silmaril, and his son Dior becomes king of Doriath. Dior, too, is quickly killed by the sons of Fëanor who invade trying to reclaim the Silmaril, but Dior’s daughter Elwing takes it with her as she flees.
Húrin’s nephew Tuor is led to Gondolin by the Vala Ulmo and marries Turgon’s daughter Idril. When Maeglin is captured by Melkor and betrays the location of Gondolin, Tuor and Idril lead the survivors of the siege to the Havens of Sirion where their son Eärendil marries Elwing.
While Eärendil is away at sea, the sons of Fëanor attack the Havens to take Elwing’s Silmaril. Ulmo helps her escape, and she and Eärendil sail to Valinor (which the Valar have shielded against ships from Middle-earth) and the power of the Silmaril allows them to reach the shore. Eärendil begs the Valar to save the elves and men of Middle-earth from Melkor, and they agree, imprisoning Melkor in the Void beyond the world. Eärendil and Elwing are granted immortality because of their elvish blood and Eärendil sails through the sky wearing the Silmaril, which becomes known on Middle-earth as a star. The other two Silmarils are lost when the remaining sons of Fëanor steal them from Manwë’s herald and throw them away, since the Silmarils—which burn anything evil—scorch them.
Most of the elves on Middle-earth return to Valinor, and the Valar raise a new island between Valinor and Middle-earth called Númenor. Though the men that inhabit it are initially righteous, they grow prouder and more skeptical of the Valar as the generations pass. A group of men, the Elf-friends, remain loyal to the Valar. In Melkor’s absence, Sauron begins to take power in Middle-earth, corrupting men and elves and eventually convincing the king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, to invade Valinor. Ilúvatar intervenes to stop the attack, removing Valinor from the physical world, drowning Númenor, and making the world round rather than flat.
The Elf-friends, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, survive the drowning of Númenor and found the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor in Middle-earth. Meanwhile, Sauron instigates the creation of the Rings of Power, which he gives to elves, men, and dwarves, and creates the One Ring to control them. When the elves realize the trap, they unite with Arnor and Gondor to lay siege to Sauron’s tower. Anárion and Elendil are killed, but Isildur cuts the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, defeating him. The One Ring is lost when Isildur is killed in an orc raid shortly after.
Generations pass, and Sauron emerges again, opposed by the wizard Gandalf and Isildur’s heir Aragorn. The Halfling Frodo travels to Mordor and destroys the One Ring in Mount Doom, permanently defeating Sauron. Aragorn is crowned king of Arnor and Gondor, and the remaining elves sail away from Middle-earth along the Straight Road to Valinor.
