(The technical term for this is "errantry".) Naturally he encounters maidens of varying degrees of virtue, good husbandmen and abbots, villainous knights and bandits, and increasingly frequent mentions of the WELL at the WORLD'S END. So as soon as he gets home he hops on his horse and heads south in search of his own adventures.
Now draw lots." The three brothers head north, east and west and Ralph draws the short straw. He & his brothers are restless, so one day his father & mother take them to the crossroads and say, "Three of you will ride off in different directions and have adventures, and one of you will stay. Ralph, our hero, is one of the four sons of the King of Upmeads. This is a very consciously medieval book - not just in that it's set in an imagined medieval world, but in that the story & language are an attempt to create a sort of medieval analogue of modern (well, for 1896) fiction. Also, for a long time one of the longest - 220,000 words, more-or-less, so longer than just about anything up until a certain Oxford professor started writing about a certain trip to a certain volcano. Possibly the second true "imaginary world" fantasy novel (the possible first being Morris' The Wood beyond the World).
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