Meaning of "the morning will speed you upon your way" in “The Fellowship of the Ring”

Question

From book 1, Chapter 8, of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:

"There you'll find an old inn that is called The Prancing Pony. Barliman Butterbur is the worthy keeper. There you can stay the night, and afterwards the morning will speed you upon your way."

What's the meaning of the phrase in bold?

Answer 1

The word ‘speed’ is used here in an archaic sense, but one that you should be easily able to find in a dictionary, for example:

speed, v. 6.a. To further or assist (a person); to cause to succeed or prosper

_{Oxford English Dictionary}

Today this sense mostly survives in stock phrases like ‘God speed’, meaning ‘(may) God assist (you)’.

When Bombadil suggests that ‘the morning will speed you’ what he means is that the hobbits will find it easier to continue on their journey in the morning, when it is light. The attribution of this assistance to the ‘morning’ is a kind of (mild) personification. This is in character for Bombadil, who is prone to speaking of natural objects as if persons, for example,

“Sun won’t show her face much today, I’m thinking.”

_{J. R. R. Tolkien (1954). The Fellowship of the Ring, book I, chapter 7. London: George Allen & Unwin.}