User blog comment:LOTRMod/Why hasn't the mod updated to 1.8 yet?/@comment-25565811-20150712103544

Most of the features added in 1.8 are only affecting the overworld (and as far as I can tell 1.9 adds some stuff to the end dimension). For me, middle earth is interresting enough so I don't need the new overworld features, as I spend nearly no time there. And when I want to try it out, I could as well play an unmodded 1.8 / 1.9 world.