The Gandalf Awards, honoring achievement in fantasy literature, were conferred by the World Science Fiction Society annually from 1974 to 1981.
They were named after Gandalf the wizard, from the Middle-earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien.
The award was created and sponsored by Lin Carter[1] and the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), an association of fantasy writers.
[2] Recipients were selected by vote of participants in the World Science Fiction Conventions according to procedures of the Hugo Awards.
Others who appeared on the ballot were C. S. Lewis, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, and Patricia McKillip.